THE HISTORY 



OF 



SOUTH CAROLINA 



UNDER THE 



PEOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 



1670-1719 



BY 



EDWARD McCRADY 

A MEMBER OF THE BAR OF CHARLESTON, S.C, AND VICE-PRESIDENT 
OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 




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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1897 



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THE HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



UNDER 



THE PEOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 
1670-1719 



^^'^^yi^^ 



The following study of the history of South Carolina 
has been made amidst the engagements of a busy profes- 
sional life, in hours snatched from that jealous mistress — 
the law. It has been a labor of love, and has been under- 
taken and carried on with the single purpose of learning 
and telling the story of the State of which the author is 
proud to be a son and a citizen. In the course of his 
study, he has found, as he conceives, occasional errors in 
the works of those who have preceded him ; and these 
he has pointed out. He cannot hope himself to have 
escaped like mistakes — though he has striven to do so. 
It will be the duty of those who come after to correct 
where he has gone astray. He only asks that this shall 
be done in the spirit of fairness he has endeavored to 
observe. To his readers in general he would recall the 
lines of the poet : — 

Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, 
Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. 

In ev'ry work regard the writer's end, 
Since none can compass more than they intend ; 

And if the means be just, the conduct true, 
Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due. 

Pope's Essay on Criticism, 250-260. 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND QUOTED 

American Commonwealth Series. Horace E, Scudder. 

Connecticut: A Study of a Commonwealth Democracy. By Pro- 
fessor Alexander Johnson. 

Maryland : The History of a Palatinate. By William Hand Browne. 

Virginia : A History of the People. By John Esten Cooke. 
Anderson's History of the Colonial Church. London 1856. 
A New Voyage to Carolina. John Lawson, 1709. 
Bancroft's History of the United States (Edition 1882). 
Baptist Church, Charleston, History of. 
Barbadoes, Poyer's History of. 
Barbadoes, Ligon's History of. 
Bingham's Antiquities. 

Bohun, Edmund, Memoir and Autobiography of. 
British Empire in America. Oldmixon. 2 ed. MDCCXLI. 
Bruce's Economic History of Virginia. 1896. 
Burke's Peerage. 

Burnet's History of His Own Times. London 1724. 
Burn's Ecclesiastical Law. 

Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury, London, 1889). 
Calhoun's Works. 
Carroll, B. R. Historical Collections. 2 volumes. 

A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina, etc., 1664. 

An Account of the Province of Carolina, etc. Samuel Wilson, 1682. 

Carolina ; or, A Description of the Present State of that Country. By 
T A (Thomas Ash), 1682. 

A New Description of that Fertile and Pleasant Province of Carolina, 
etc. John Archdale, 1707. 

A Narrative of the Proceedings of the People of South Carolina in 
the year 1719. (1726.) 

A Description of South Carolina, etc. Governor Glen. 

Political Annals of the Province of Carolina, etc. George Chalmers. 

Statements made in the introduction to the Report of General Ogle- 
thorpe's Expedition to St. Augustine. 1741. 

An Account of the Missionaries sent to South Carolina. 

An Account of the Breaking-out of the Yamassee War. Extracted 
from the Boston News of the 13th of June, 1715. 

An Account of What the Army did under the Command of Colonel 
Moore, etc, Boston News, May 1, 1704. 

vii 



Vlll AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND QUOTED 

Charlemagne Tower, Collection of Colonial Laws, privately printed for 

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1890. 
Charters and Constitutions, The United States. Poore, 1878. 
Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. 2 volumes. Oxford. MDCCXL. 
Collections of the Historical Society of South Carolina. Volumes I, II, 

III, IV. 
Collins's Peerage. 

Colonial Records of North Carolina. Volumes I and II. 
Commons Journals MS., Columbia, S. C. 
Coxe's Description of the English Province of Carolana. 
Cyclopedia, Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas. Brandt 

& Fuller, Chicago. Preface to, by Edward McCrady. 
Dalcho's Church History, 1820. 
De Bow's Review. 

Doyle's English Colonies in America. 
Drayton, John, A View of South Carolina. 1802. 
Drayton, John, Memoirs. 2 volumes. 
Emigrants to America, 1600-1700 (Hottin). 
Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Eraser, Charles, Reminiscences of Charleston. 1854. 
Gazette, The South Carolina. 

Gazette, The Royal Charlestown, South Carolina, 1780-82. 
Genesis of the United States. Alexander Brown. 1891. 
Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. X. MDCCXL. 
George II, Memoirs of. Walpole. 

Golden Islands, An Account of. By John Barnwell, London, 1720. 
Green's History of the English People. 
Greg, Percy, History of the United States. 
Hakluyt's Voyages. 

Hawks, Francis L., D.D., History of North Carolina. 2 volumes. 
Hewatt, Rev. Alexander, D.D., An Historical Account of the Rise and 

Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia, 1779. 
Howe, Rev. George, D.D., History of the Presbyterian Church in South 

Carolina. 
Huguenots, The. Samuel Smiles. 
Johns Hopkins University Studies. 

The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce. S. C. Hughson. 

12 series, V, VI, VII. 
Government of the Colony of South Carolina. Edson L. Whitney, 

Ph.D., LL.B. 13 series, I, II. 
Lecky's History of England in the Eighteenth Century. 
Lecky's Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland. 



AUTHORITIES CONSULTED AND QUOTED ix 

Legal Works and Reports. 

Blackstoue's Commentaries. 

Kent's Commentaries. 

Jacob's Law Dictionary. 

Phillimore on International Law. 

Brown's Parliamentary Cases. 

English Common Law Reports. Dwyer, Salkeld. 

English Equity Reports. Perre Williams. 

South Carolina Law and Equity Reports. 

State Trials. Volume VI-XV. 

Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet. Pamphlet, 1719. 

Statutes of the Realm. English. 

Statutes of South Carolina. 
Liste des Eran^ais et Suisse. Edited by Theodore Gaillard Thomas, M.D,, 

New York, 1888. 
Locke's Works. 2 ed. London MDCCXCIV. 
Macaulay's History of England. 
Marion, James's Life of. 1821. 

Morton, Memoranda relating to the Family of. 1894. 
Old Churches, Ministers, and Families in Virginia. Bishop Meade. 
Parliamentary History. Volume XVI. 
Public Records MS., Columbia, S. C. 
Puritan, The, in England and America. Douglass Campbell, A.M., LL.B., 

New York, 1892. 
Ramsay, Dr. David, History of South Carolina. 2 volumes. 
Rivers, Professor William J., Historical Sketch of South Carolina. 
Rivers, Professor William J. , Chapter Colonial History. 
Shecut's Medical and Philosophical Essays. 1819. 
Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 1670-1770. Edward McCrady. 

Annual Reports Am. Hist. So., 1896. 
Smollett's History of England. 

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Historical account of. Hum- 
phreys. 1729. 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, Digest Records of. 1701-1892. 
West Indies, Bryan Edwards's History of. 2 ed. MDCCXCIV. 
West Indies, Froude's English in the. 
Wheeler's Reminiscences of North Carolina. 
Year Books, City of Charleston, during the administrations of the Hon. 

William A. Courtenay, the Hon. John F. Ficken and the Hon. I. 

Adger Smyth. 



HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA UNDER 
THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 



-OO'^^OO- 



INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 

The domain of the United States of America was 
chiefly settled by the English under Royal grants, from 
three principal points, nearly equidistant from each other: 
Jamestown in Virginia, in 1607, Plymouth in Massachu- 
setts, 1620, and Charles Town in Carolina, in 1670. From 
these points have emanated the differing political thoughts 
of the country, which have, in the main in parallel lines, 
acco&upanied the tide of emigration westward.^ 

Physical causes marked great differences in the devel- 
opment of these settlements, and especially in that of 
Carolina from the other two. To these ph3^sical causes 

1 The extent of emigration from South Carolina is not generally realized. 
It is not generally known that she was one of tlie great emigrant States. 
" Yet from 1820 to 1860," says General Francis A. Walker, in his Intro- 
duction to the United States census of 1880, " South Carolina was a bee- 
hive from which swarms were continually going forth to populate the 
newer cotton-growing states of the Southwest." The whole population 
of the State in 18(30 amounted to 470,2')7. There were then living in 
other States 193,389 white persons born in South Carolina. That is, two- 
fifths of the whole native-born population had emigrated and were then 
living in other States, and these almost entirely in Georgia, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, and Texas. In 1870 out of 078,706 
native-born South Carolinians more than one-third, about 246,066, were 
living in other States. 

B 1 



2 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

others were added wlncli tended to form the society of 
Carolina npon a basis differing from that of the other 
colonies; and to prodnce a people to a considerable degree 
peculiar in their characteristics. 

The colony of Virginia Avas little further from that of 
Massachusetts than from that of Carolina; but the terri- 
tory between Virginia and Massachusetts, already to some 
extent peopled by the Dutcli, was soon tilled up by the 
settlements of the provinces of Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and 
Maryland, forming a chain of colonies linked together by 
neighboring influences and conveniences, and thus beget- 
ting something of a common American colonial sentiment. 
There was nothing in the situation of the colony of Caro- 
lina to produce a similar effect. The colonists at Charles 
Town, more than three hundred miles south of the James 
River, were practically much further than that distance 
from Virginia, the nearest established colony. Hatteras 
projecting into the ocean rendered communication between 
the first settlers in Carolina and the other colonies, in 
their small vessels, more dangerous almost than that witli 
England. The only travel by land between Carolina and 
Virginia was b}^ Indian trail. Tliere Avere no roads nor 
means of transportation. Lederer, the learned German 
explorer, whom Governor Berkeley sent out from Virginia 
in 1669 to explore the country, after travelling for 
months Avith Indian guides certainly did not reach 
be3^ond the Santee — if, indeed, he entered at all the 
territory of the present State of South Carolina.^ A 
postoffice AA\as established in Charles ToAvn as early as 
1698, but this was for European and West Indian cor- 
respondence. Peter Timothy, postmaster, gives notice 
in the Grazette^ August 19, 1756, nearly sixty years after, 

^ History of No. Ca. (Hawks), 52. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 3 

that the first mail from Wihnington (North Carolina) is 
hourly expected to arrive here, and will set out on his 
return two days after his arrival. This was to be con- 
tinued every fortnight, and those who wished to have 
their letters forwarded by this conveyance were requested 
to send them in time. The letter of intelligence of the 
battle of Lexington, which was transmitted from com- 
mittee to committee, dated 24th of April, 1775, and 
starting from Wallingsford, Connecticut, one hundred 
miles from New York, reached Charleston in seventeen 
days. It was sixteen coming from New York, fifteen 
from Princeton, ten from Fredericksburg, Virginia, and 
three days from Wilmington, North Carolina.^ This was 
by express, and was considered remarkable for its dis- 
patch; and so it was, for the express which brought the 
news of the Declaration of Independence from Philadel- 
phia did not reach Charleston until the 2d of August, 
twenty-nine days after it had been adopted in Congress. 
It reached Paris but a few days" later than it reached 
Charleston, i.e. some time in the first half of the month 
of August. The South Carolina and American Greneral 
Grazette^ of the 11th of September, 1776, complains that 
though not long since an express had come in sixteen 
days from Philadelphia, the Northern Post generally took 
about double that time. Ships frequently arrived from 
England, bringing European news within the month. 
Thus separated from the other colonies by distance, and 
still more so by the character of the intervening country. 
South Carolina was left to struggle by herself for 
existence. 

The colony was for a long time, indeed until 1733, the 
distant outpost between the other English colonies and the 
Spaniards at St. Augustine, and the French on the Mis- 

1 Drayton's Memoirs, vol. I, 248. 



4 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sissippi. It was planted to assert the dominion of Great 
Britain against that of Spain in disputed territory. At 
each end of the long attenuated line of the British settle- 
ments on the American coast there was a hostile post. 
At the North the French in Canada were jealously 
watching the growth of the English colonial system, 
while at the South the Spaniards in Florida, regarding 
the planting of the colony in Carolina as an invasion of 
their own territory, were on the alert to attack it upon 
every favorable opportunity, regardless whether peace or 
war formally subsisted at the time between Spain and 
England. The French were a menace to New England, 
but the colonists there could be reached only by an over- 
land invasion, which, by the climate, was practically 
restricted to one season of the year, and which, from the 
difficulty of transportation, was much less serious. The 
Spaniards at St. Augustine, on the other hand, were the 
constant active and malignant enemies of the Carolinians, 
who were at such a distance from the other British 
colonies as to be beyond the reach of their support. 
Then, too, Charles Town was a little further from St. 
Augustine than a third of the distance from Jamestown, in 
Virginia, the nearest settlement, with the exception of the 
feeble colony at Albemarle, from which no support could 
be extended. The Carolinians were open to attack by 
sea, and to this danger they were open at all seasons of 
the year. 

This separation of South Carolina from the other colo- 
nies on the Continent was recognized and acted upon in 
the treatment of the colony by the Government in Eng- 
land. It was regarded as more nearly allied to the island 
colonies than to those on the main. Thus when Edward 
Randolph, the collector of the King's customs, proposed 
in 1694 a rearrangement and consolidation of the Colonial 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 5 

Governments for the better control and collection of the 
King's revenue, he recommended that the Proprietary 
Governments should be set aside, and that South Carolina 
and all the Baliama Islands should be put under one 
government, under her Majesty's immediate authority; 
that North Caroliua should be annexed to Virginia, 
Delaware to Maryland, West Jersey to Pennsylvania, 
East Jersey and Connecticut to New York, and Rhode 
Island to Massachusetts, thus reducing the number of the 
colonies to but six.^ 

This treatment at home, and constant exposure to 
attack from St. Augustine by sea and from Indians on 
land, instigated alike by the Spaniards in Florida and the 
French from Mobile, had great influence upon the devel- 
opment of the Carolina colony, alike upon the organiza- 
tion of its government and its social structure. 

In the first place it forced the Carolinians to depend 
upon themselves for their defence, and to that extent 
produced a sentiment of independence in regard to the 
other colonies. 

In the next it began the centripetal character of the 
development of the colony, which as a province and State 
South Carolina so long retained, and Avliich indeed she 
has not even yet entirely lost. The colonial development 
of Virginia was by rural communities. There was no 
city or town life. ^' The only place in Virginia previous 
to 1700 to which the name of a town could with any 
degree of appropriateness be applied was Jamestown, and 
even this settlement never rose to a dignity superior to 
that of a village. "2 Williamsburg was never more than 
a college town and seat of government. In New Eng- 
land the colonists separated very early into different com- 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 441, 442. 

2 Bruce's Economic History of Virginia, vol. IT, 526. 



6 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

munities. In Connecticut, says Professor Johnston, town 
and church were but two sides of the same thing, and as 
there would be differences of opinion in church as well as 
in town matters, every religious dispute gave rise to a 
new town until the faintest lines of theological divergence 
were satisfied.^ Each of these new towns with its own 
peculiar schism became a new centre, from and around 
which population spread. But in South Carolina the 
constant and immediate danger of invasion by Spaniards 
and Indians, as exemplified in the utter destruction of the 
attempted settlement by Lord Cardross at Port Royal in 
1686, restricted the colonists for many years to distances 
within reach of the fortifications of Charles Town, and 
formed within and around it a compact body of society, 
with outlying plantations, from which in case of alarm 
the colonists withdrew to the town, as in case of the 
rising of the Yamassees in 1715. When this danger was 
overcome by the increase of population, and the founding 
and building up of the colony of Georgia, the unhealth- 
fulness of the country along the rivers, increased, if not 
caused, by the disturbance of the soil and the stag- 
nant water of rice planting in the inland swamps, com- 
pelled the planters to reside in the summer in the town 
or in some high resinous pine-land settlement away from 
malaria. 2 Thus, until the immigration of the Scotch- 
Irish and Virginians into the upper country by the way 
of the mountains, from 1750 to 1760, the development of 

1 Connecticut^ Am. Com., Series 6. 

2 A recent writer, of whom we shall have occasion presently to speak, 
has fallen into the curious error of stating that it was the winter months 
during which the wealthy planters, owing to the unhealthfulness of the 
surrounding country, were in the habit of resorting to Charlestown, 
missing at once the fact and the cause. Government of the Colony of 
South Carolina (Whitney). Johns Hopkins University Studies, 13 series, 
1-11. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 7 

the colony was not, as in New England, from many and 
distinct settlements or towns, but from one point, the 
circle enlarging as the population increased, but always 
with reference to the one central point, — the town, — 
Charles Town. 

The development of Carolina thus presented the anom- 
aly that, though it was a planters' colony, it was devel- 
oped by Avay of city or town life. Boston was the largest 
town in Massachusetts, but there was organization and 
administration outside of it. For many years Charles 
Town practically embodied all of Carolina. Beaufort, 
.the next town to be settled, was not attempted for more 
than forty years after the planting of the colony, and 
Georgetown not until some years later. Until 1716 elec- 
tions were generally held in the town for all the province, 
and representation outside of it — that by parishes — was 
not practically established until the overthrow of the Pro- 
prietary Government in 1719. No court of general juris- 
diction was held outside of it until 1773, over a hundred 
years after the establishment of the colony. There Avas 
only one government for the province, the town, and the 
church. The same General Assembly passed laws for 
the province, laid out streets, regulated the police for the 
town, and governed the church. Even after the colony 
had grown, and the upper country had been peopled from 
another source, every magistrate in the province was ap- 
pointed in Charles Town until the Revolution of 1776, 
and after that, upon the adoption of the Constitution of 
1790 and the change of the seat of government to Colum- 
bia, at that place. There was thus from tlie inception of 
the colony in 1665 to the overtlirow of the State in 1865, 
for two hundred years, only one government in South 
Carolina. There was no such thing as a county or town- 
ship government of any kind. 



8 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

From the isolation of the colony during the period of 
its formation, and for long after, it remained a dependency 
of England, as well in interest as in fact, rather than de- 
pendent upon the support and sympathy of its distant 
sister colonies ; and with the love of the old country, with 
which communication was constant and close, everything 
tended to linut whatever patriotism there might be to the 
gradually extending area of the province, while the con- 
stant recurrence in thought and act to the central point, 
the town, developed and intensified the Carolina conception 
of the entity of the State and of its absolute sovereignty. 

There were other potent causes tending to differentiate 
the colonists of Carolina from those of the other provinces. 
All the other colonies, except New York, were peopled 
by emigrants in the main directly from the British Isl- 
ands ; but beside tlie large Huguenot element in her popu- 
lation, Carolina was settled in a great measure from 
Barbadoes and the other British West Indies. Naviga- 
tion to the southern parts of America was at first en- 
tirely by the way of the West Indies, and though Ribault 
in 1562 had ventured directly across the Atlantic, the 
course of communication between Carolina and England 
continued for many years to be principally by way of 
Barbadoes. The first colony sent by the Proprietors sailed 
for Barbadoes, consigned to agents there, from which it 
was dispatched to Carolina by way of Bermuda. While 
in the formation of the other colonies the whole structure 
of society Avas of necessity built up from the very founda- 
tion in accordance with the peculiar environment of each, 
the social and political system of Carolina was to a con- 
siderable extent transferred from that island in a state of 
advanced development. The settlers from Barbadoes 
under Yeamans brought with them a colonial system 
which, though comparatively new and not full}^ developed. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 9 

was little later than that of Virgmia and nearly contem- 
poraneous with that of Massachusetts ; and the basis of 
this social system was the institution of African slavery. 
The attempt to engraft upon this social order a legally 
recognized aristocracy of Landgraves and Caciques, pro- 
posed by Locke and adopted by the Proprietors under the 
influence of Shaftesbury, and the struggle caused by its 
attempted enforcement, helped much in the formation of 
the peculiar characteristics which were to mark the politi- 
cal and social organization of South Carolina, giving to 
it on the one hand a strongly aristocratic tone with a 
party for sustaining prerogative, while on the other it 
developed in the very outset a party of the people who 
based their rights upon the dogma of a strict construction 
of chartered or constitutional provisions. 

Then again, the establishment of the colony in prox- 
imity to the Spaniards, and the hostility of the Indians 
under French and Spanish influence, necessitated from 
the very beginning a military organization of the people ; 
and this was also rendered the more necessary by the 
increasing number of negro slaves, — savages, — which 
became a source of weakness in times of danger, and, 
until the institution in the course of years became 
thoroughly settled, a constant source of care and anxiety. 
The colonists, as we shall see, were desirous of checking 
the importation of negroes, not from any moral objections 
to slave holding, but from their apprehension of the 
danger of being outnumbered by the negroes, and of 
their rising in case the whites should be assailed by the 
Indians, or through the instigation of the Spaniards or 
French, as did happen in 1740. This danger gave rise 
to a military police organization of the whole people, 
which continued from 1704 until the emancipation of the 
negroes as the result of the war of secession. 



10 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Under this system the province, and afterwards the 
State, was divided into military districts, the chief of 
each of which was a colonel, and these again into other 
districts, or beats, nnder captains. The captain was the 
police officer of his district, or beat, and was charged 
with the patrol and police of his beat and the enforce- 
ment of the regulations in regard to the slaves. The 
regimental and company military precincts were thus 
coincident with the police districts, and the two formed 
one system. The captain of a beat or militia company 
thus charged with the maintenance of order in his district 
was a man in authority for the time, and as the duties 
were onerous the office was not usually held longer than 
the term which exempted one from further service. So 
each young man of position in a neighborhood took his 
turn of duty, and thus acquiring the title of captain re- 
tained it unless he became colonel. There were usually, 
therefore, a considerable number of men in each commun- 
ity having the title of '' captain " or " colonel," and the 
designation implying a person of some local consequence 
was sought, and sometimes assumed without actual ser- 
vice. This system gave a military organization to the 
people, which was much more effective and exacting than 
ordinary militia enrolment and muster. So imbued was 
the system of government brought from Barbadoes with 
a military spirit that the high sheriff of the province re- 
tained the military title of " provost-marshal " for a hun- 
dred years — indeed, until the American Revolution. To 
this source may be traced the prevalence of military titles 
in the South, as that of " judge " or " squire " in other 
communities, indicating persons of local consequence. 

Another principle to which tlie people of South Caro- 
lina have been as devoted, and have clung with equal 
consistency as to that of the autonomy of the State, is 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 11 

that of the inviolability of the family relation. Nowhere 
has the family bond — the foundation and germ of all 
society and government — been more sacredly guarded 
and effectually preserved. It has been a part of the 
Constitution of the State — unwritten, it is true, until 
1895 — but nevertheless fully recognized and enforced — 
that divorce should never be allowed. There never has 
been a divorce in South Carolina — province, colony, or 
State — except during the Reconstruction period after 
the war between the States, under the government of 
strangers, adventurers, and negroes, upheld by Federal 
bayonets. There is but one case of divorce reported in 
her law books, and that was during that infamous rule. 
The legislature of the State has persistently refused 
either itself to grant divorces or to authorize its courts 
to do so. In conferring powers and jurisdiction upon its 
courts those of the ecclesiastical tribunals were purposely 
excluded. " Whether wisely or unwisely," said Chan- 
cellor Dunkin in a case in which an effort was made to 
have the court declare marriage void, " the legislature 
has thought proper to withhold these powers. They 
have delegated to no court the authority to declare a 
marriage void, and they have never themselves exercised 
the authority."^ The Constitution adopted in the last 

1 See the cases of Mattison v. Mattison, 1 Strohart Eqiiity Beports, 
S. C, and Boivers v. Bowers, 10 Bichardson' s EquUy Beports, S. C. The 
latter a case decided by the Court of Errors consisting of all the law 
judges and chancellors on equity of the State. 

It is sometimes suggested tliat this prohibition of divorce has been 
more a matter of form than of substance, as persons desiring divorce had 
only to go into another State, obtain a decree, and return. This has 
undoubtedly been attempted, but is countenanced neither by the courts 
nor by society. In a case Diike v. Fiilmer, 5 Bichardson's Equity Beports, 
121, involving a question of property, it was attempted to set up such a 
decree obtained in another State ; but the courts of the State would not 
permit it, but held that a marriage contract once entered into in South 



12 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

year (1895) has now made the prohibition of divorce a 
part of the written organic hiw of the State. With this 
inexorable rule in regard to the irrevocability of marriage 
once entered into the family group has been at once the 
source of social and political strength. The people of 
South Carolina have recognized and acted upon the great 
political truth that in a republican form of government 
above all others is the family the strength of the State. 
She has held out to her sons that in establishing their 
own position upon a political or social eminence they 
were establishing it for their sons as well. She has been 
ready to recognize and has hailed with satisfaction and 
reward the evidence of the worthiness of the sons to 
succeed the fathers whom she had honored with public 
trusts. And so it has been that generation after genera- 
tion finds the same names in her public records. It is no 
uncommon thing to find the sons to the third and fourth 
generation sitting together in the councils of tlie State. 
This political and social policy has given to the State 
many long lines of illustrious men. 

Most of the elder States, says a recent English writer, 
preserve throughout American history an individuality 
quite as distinct and persistent as that of the leading 
Greek cities or great Roman families. But above all the 
dauntless and defiant spirit, the fiery temper, the ventur- 
ous chivalry of South Carolina, continually remind the 
student of American history of her mixed origin, — the 
early interfusion of the blood of the English Cavalier with 
that of the Huguenots, wlio transmitted to their offspring 

Carolina is indissoluble, either by consent of the parties or by the judg- 
ment or statute of any foreign tribunal or legislation. A divorced person 
in the State of South Carolina is as rare as the Northern gentleman who 
had been abroad, who, ^Ir. :McMaster tells us, was pointed out as a curios- 
ity as late as 1705. Hist, of the United States, vol. I, 51. 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 13 

the traditional gallantry and martial spirit of their Gascon 
ancestry. Nothing in her situation, geographical, political, 
or industrial, required her to take the foremost place in 
sectional conflict. But in almost every collision the Pal- 
metto State comes to the front as the promptest, fiercest, 
most determined champion of State sovereignty, slavery, 
and Southern interests.^ Another writer observes that a 
Virginian of to-day is first a Virginian ; a South Caro- 
linian is above all things a South Carolinian, but next they 
are both Southerners, and lastly Americans. Whether 
these criticisms are altogether true or not, the people of 
South Carolina, admired or condemned, have been recog- 
nized as a people of marked and distinctive characteristics. 
They have held and maintained determined policies 
throughout their history, and have impressed them upon 
other parts of the country. For this the calamities which 
befell in the war which they challenged have been by 
some regarded as a just retribution. But whether praised 
or blamed the fact is certain that they have been recog- 
nized as in many respects peculiar in their character. ^ 

This, too, is more remarkable when, as every one famil- 
iar with the local history of the State well knows, there 
have been always marked and well-defined differences be- 
tween themselves in almost every respect in which they 
appear to strangers as one people. It is all the more re- 
markable, too, since these differences have been, so to 
speak, organic, having had their origin in the very settle- 
ment of the State, and have not been evolved from differ- 
ing circumstances among tliose who were once the same 
people. 

To some of the first causes of these marked characteris- 

1 Hist, of the United States (Percy Greg), vol. I, 439. 

2 Preface to Cyclopedia of Eminent Representative Men of the Caro- 
linas of the Nineteenth Century, by Edward McCrady. 



14 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tics we have already referred. These and others scarcely 
less potent will more fully appear as we proceed. We 
shall attempt in the following work to trace the history 
and the development of the State of South Carolina so- 
cially and politically from the inception of the colony to 
the end of the American Revolution. 

A great inducement to this undertaking is the fact 
that there exists to-day no history of the State Avhich 
can be bought upon the market. Her history can now 
be studied only in rare works to be purchased only oc- 
casionally at high rates in old book stalls. 

So much, too, has recently been brought to light from 
sources inaccessible to former historians that it has be- 
come necessary to reconsider and recast much that has 
hitherto been received as authentic. This we have, per- 
haps rashly, attempted to do. 

A brief review of works in regard to South Carolina, 
now out of print, will show, we think, tlie occasion for 
some substitute for them, and will, we trust, justify the 
attempt we have made to supply this want. 

The first publication in regard to Carolina was one in 
the nature of an advertisement made by the Proprietors 
to induce emigration to the plantation or settlement at 
Cape Fear, begun on the 29th of May, 1664. It is en- 
titled " A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina 
on the Coasts of Florida." It was printed in London in 
1666.^ In 1682 there were two other such publications ; 
one was by Samuel Wilson, secretary to the Proprietors, 
which was likewise an advertisement of the advantages of 
the settlement of Charles Town at Oyster Point. It is 
entitled " An Account of the Province of Carolina in 
America, together with an Abstract of the Patent, and 
several otlier Necessary and Useful Particulars to such as 
1 Carroll's Collections, vol. II, 9. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 15 

have Thoughts of Transporting Themselves thither. 
Published for their information." . . . The other publi- 
cation of the year 1682 was made by one who wrote under 

the designation of " T A -, Gen't clerk on board her 

Majesty's ship the Richmond, which was sent out in the 
year 1680, with particular instruction to inquire into the 
state of the country by her Majesty's special command, 
and returned this present year, 1682." The work is en- 
titled " Carolina or a Description of the Present State of 
that Country and the Natural Excellence thereof," etc. 
This publication, by Thomas Ashe, is more reliable than 
that of Samuel Wilson's, inasmuch as it is in the nature 
of a disinterested report, rather than an advertisement to 
induce immigration. 

The next work is " A New Description of that Fertile 
and Pleasant Province of Carolina, with a Brief Account 
of its Discovery and Settling and the Government thereof 
to the Time, with several Remarkable Passages of Divine 
Providence during my Time. By John Archdale, late 
Governor of the Same. London. Printed in 1707." The 
description of Carolina in this work is very meagre ; and 
besides the briefest account of its affairs since the settle- 
ment of the colony there is little more than a narrative 
of Archdale's short administration, written apparently to 
justify his conduct, and to show that he was not respon- 
sible for the disturbed condition of affairs which occurred 
soon after he left the province. His style is exceedingly 
loose and confused, and the work is too egotistical to be 
of any great value save for the presence of a few original 
papers. 

The next year, 1708, tliere appeared a work of con- 
siderable pretension publislied anonymously in two vol- 
umes, under the title of " The British Empire in America, 
Containing the History of the Discovery, Settlement, 



IG HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Progress and State of the Continent and Islands of Amer- 
ica." The first volume was "an account of the country, 
soil, climate, product and trade of New Foundland, New 
England, New Scotland, New York, New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Carolina, Georgia and Hud- 
son's Bay." The second volume contained like accounts 
of the West India Islands. This work was by John Old- 
mixon, an author of numerous poems and some historical 
works. The latter are regarded as dull works, and his 
bigoted defence of Whig principles and abuse of the 
Stuarts are not calculated to inspire confidence. Macau- 
lay, Wliig as he was, declares that Oldmixon unsupported 
by evidence is of no weight whatsoever. He was one of 
the victims of Pope's satire in the Dimciad. His account 
of Carolina in this work is nevertheless the first historical 
account of the province. True to his character and poli- 
tics, however, liis authorities are all on one side of the 
religious disputes in the colony. These are avowedly 
Archdale and Boone, the latter of whom was the leader 
on that side in all the controversies in regard to the 
naturalization of the Huguenots and the Church Acts. 
Oldmixon's account of Carolina will be found republished 
in Carroll's collections. We shall quote from the original 
work rather than from Carroll's collections, as we shall 
have occasion to refer to the volume on the West Indies 
as well as to that in winch he writes of Carolina. 

The first work designed as a history of South Carolina 
— a history of South Carolina only — was that prepared 
by the Rev. Alexander Hewatt, D.D., published in Lon- 
don in 1779 during the Revolution. It was entitled 
" An Historical Account of the Rise and Progress of the 
Colonies of South Carolina and Georgia." Dr. Hewatt, 
as is well known, was the pastor of the Scotch, now the 
First Presbyterian, Church, Charleston, from 1763 to 1776, 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 17 

when he left the province because of his opposition to the 
pending Revolution. His work was compiled, it is said, 
with the assistance of Lieutenant Governor William Bull,^ 
than whom no better informed nor safer authority could 
possibly have been found ; for, though like Dr. Hewatt 
a Royalist, and at tlie time of the publication a refugee in 
London in consequence. Governor Bull possessed means 
of information beyond that probably of any other person 
in the province, he having himself been continuously in 
public office since 1740, the son of Lieutenant Governor 
William Bull, who had likewise been in office for many 
years, and the grandson of Stephen Bull, who had come 
out with the first settlers on the Ashley the deputy of a 
Proprietor, and had held offices in succession from the 
formation of the colony. When, therefore. Dr. Hewatt 
speaks from tradition he does so from the very best source 
of information. Access, however, to the records of the 
State paper office in London, which have since been pub- 
lished, the Shaftesbury papers, some of which were ob- 
tained mainly through the exertions of the Hon. William 
A. Courtenay, and some of which he has presented in the 
City Year Books of his administration as Mayor of Charles- 
ton, and the manuscript public records now in Columbia, 
show that lie was sometimes mistaken, and justify the 
regret he expressed in his preface "that he was sometimes 
obliged to have recourse to very confused materials ; that 
indeed his information in the peculiar circumstances in 
Avhich he stood was often not so good as he could have 
desired, and even from these he was excluded before he 
had finished the collection necessary to complete his plan." 
Dr. Hewatt's work covers the period of tlie Proprietary 
Government and that of the Royal to the repeal of the 
Stamp Act in 1766. 

1 Preface to Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca. 



l8 HISTOllY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

George Chalmers, an antiquarian and political writer of 
considerable eminence, had visited Maryland in 1763 
with a view to settling there ; but espousing the Royalist 
cause on the breaking out of the American War of Inde- 
pendence, returned to England. Having become never- 
theless much interested in the history and establishment 
of the English colonies in America, and enjoying free 
access to the State papers and plantation records, he be- 
came possessed of much important information, and in 
1780 published the first volume of a projected work, en- 
titled " Political Annals of the Present United Colonies 
from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763." The annals 
of Carolina are brought down in this volume to the final 
rejection of the Fundamental Constitutions in 1693. The 
second volume never appeared. The work as far as it 
went is tlie best that Avas yet written, and contains much 
valuable and reliable information. This also is repub- 
lished in Carroll's collections. 

Dr. David Ramsay in 1785 — two years after the end of 
the struggle — published his " History of the Revolution of 
South Carolina from a British Province to an Independent 
State, in two volumes," and this work in 1789 he followed 
with a history of the American Revolution ; and in 1809 
he published '' The History of South Carolina from its 
First Settlement in 1670 to the year 1808." This last 
work so far as it relates to the Proprietary and Royal gov- 
ernments is mostly a reproduction of parts of Hewatt's 
work. He follows that author line after line, and page 
after page. He appears to have consulted no original 
documents in its preparation. His first volume is little 
more than an abridgment and rearrangement of Hewatt's 
history ; but in the second he has compiled much valuable 
information in regard to medical, legal, fiscal, agricultural, 
and commercial affairs, of the arts, of natural history and 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 19 

literature, and has appended biographical sketches of great 
interest. The chief value of his work is contained in the 
second volume. 

Ramsay's history of the revolution in South Carolina 
is valuable chiefly for the number of original documents 
it preserves, and is quite full so far as it records the trans- 
actions of Congress and the movements of the Continen- 
tal army, but he fails to appreciate the important part 
acted by the partisan bands in South Carolina during the 
period in which, after the fall of Charleston and the defeat 
of Gates at Camden, the State was practically abandoned 
by Congress as lost. His silence upon the subject is per- 
haps owing to the fact that during that time he was an 
exile in St. Augustine, cut off from information of what 
was passing in the State, and that from the very nature 
of the important services rendered by those patriots, with- 
out a government of any kind — State or Continental — 
to support them, they were without official records and 
their deeds dependent for historical preservation upon pri- 
vate memoirs, which had not appeared at the time when 
Dr. Ramsay compiled his history. 

General William Moultrie in 1802 published two vol- 
umes, entitled " Memoirs of the American Revolution so far 
as it related to the States of North and South Carolina and 
Georgia, compiled from the most authentic materials, the 
author's personal knowledge of the various events, and in- 
cluding an epistolary correspondence in public affairs with 
civil and military officers at that period." These volumes 
are invaluable for the original papers which they contain, 
surpassing any other history of the times in this respect. 
The personal letters he gives throw a flood of light upon 
the state of private opinion of the times, and are scarcely 
less valuable than the numerous public papers, orders, re- 
ports, etc., which are thus preserved. General Moultrie 



20 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was a prisoner from the fall of Charles Town, and so, like 
Dr. Ramsay, was not a participator in the great achieve- 
ments of Sumter and Marion. In charge, however, under 
the British authorities of the American prisoners taken in 
Charles Town, he gives us an account of their treatment, 
and occasional glimpses of what was passing in the British 
lines, which he obtained in such intercourse with the Brit- 
ish officers as his position allowed or called for. His per- 
sonal recollections were recorded, however, too long after 
the events of which he writes to insure accuracy. 

In 1812 Colonel Henry Lee, wlio had commanded the 
famous legion in the campaigns of 1781 and 1782, pub- 
lished his history, entitled " Memoirs of the War in the 
Southern Department of the United States." In this 
work Colonel Lee displays abilities as a writer scarcely 
less than those of a military commander, which he had so 
signally displayed during his service in this State. As 
his greed for fame, however, had laid him open to the ac- 
cusation of improper conduct in the field, it led him also 
as an author to assume, impliedly at least, credit to him- 
self for deeds performed by others. His jealousy of Sum- 
ter and Marion was very great, — especially of Sumter, — • 
but it was not confined to them. It extended also to 
Major Rudulph, his next in command in the legion. To 
secure for himself the honor of receiving the surrender of 
Fort Grandby in 1781, he is charged with granting im- 
proper terms to the British commander in order to hasten 
the surrender before Sumter, wlio had hemmed in the Brit- 
ish garrison before Lee's arrival, could return from a dash 
upon Orangeburg. The taking of Fort Galpin he leaves to 
be inferred as having been accomplished by himself, when 
it was the achievement of Major Rudulph, and at which he 
was not even present. He describes the battle of Quin- 
by's Bridge as if fought by him, without mentioning the 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 21 

fact that General Sumter was present and in command. 
Colonel Lee's memoir is nevertheless a most able, impor- 
tant, and valuable work. It was republished and edited 
by his distinguished son, General Robert E. Lee, in 1870, 
under the briefer title of the " Memoirs of the War '76,'* 
and is so cited in this work. 

In 1816 Mason L. Weems, of Maryland, claiming to be 
an Episcopal clergyman, his ordination as such, however, 
being, at least, doubtful, but who did, nevertheless, officiate 
at Pohick Church, near Mount Vernon, in the time of Gen- 
eral Washington, wrote a life of General Marion, which 
he published as the joint work of General Peter Horry 
and himself. General Horry disclaimed the honor. 
Weems was a man of no character, but became famous as 
an author and travelling book agent for Mathew Carey. 
An Episcopal clergyman, as he claimed to be, he knew no 
distinction of churches, but preached in every pulpit to 
which he could gain access, and from each of which he 
recommended his books. He carried a liddle on his 
drumming tours, and when he could find no pulpit from 
which to cry his books he gathered a crowd by that instru- 
ment. He nevertheless wrote in a most popular style, and 
his Life of Washington, published in 1800, went through 
forty editions. His Life of Marion has probably gone 
through as many and is still republished. These works, 
says Bishop Meade, have been probably more read than 
those of Marshall, Ramsay, Bancroft, and Irving j)ut 
together. Hence it is that Marion's name is to be found 
all over the United States in the nomenclature of towns 
and postoffices. As historical works these books are 
absolutely valueless and full of ridiculous exaggerations 
and false statements. The best that can be said of them 
is to call tliem historical romances.^ 

1 See Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia, Bishi^p 
Meade, 2 vol., 233 ; Allibone's Critical Die. of English Literature. And 

A 



22 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The appearance of Weems's fanciful tale, besides giv- 
ing fame to Marion which he fully deserved upon better 
grounds than that of his idle story, had the beneficial 
effect of calling forth a most admirable and authentic 
work upon the subject by Major William Dobein James, 
of Marion's brigade, published in 1821. The only allu- 
sion, however, which Major James makes to Weems's book 
is the statement, in his preface, that the original of the 
correspondence between General Greene and General 
Marion had been left by General Horry with Weems; 
"but it appears," James observes, that "he made no use 
of them." 

The two volumes entitled " Sketches of the Life and 
Correspondence of Nathaniel Greene, etc., by the Hon. 
William Johnson, Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States," published in 1822, besides a brief but 
excellent sketch of the settlement of the province, con- 
tains altogether the best account of the war of the Revo- 
lution in South Carolina. Unfortunately, however, Mr. 
Justice Johnson, in his zealous advocacy of the hero of his 
work, became, we think, misled into attributing to him the 
credit for the redemption of the State, at the expense of 
Sumter and Marion, and their heroic followers. To repair 
this unintentional injustice of both Ramsay and Johnson 
shall be our earnest effort, if in the publication of this 
volume we shall find sufficient encouragement to pursue 
the work and life, and time shall allow. If so, we shall 
attempt to correct the impression and to show to how 
great an extent the ultimate results of the whole revolu- 
tionary struggle in the country was dependent upon the 

yet it is such a work as Weems's Life of Marion that is gravely cited as 
authority upon the subject of Education in South Carolina in the Report 
of the Commissioners of Education of the United States for the year 1893. 
See vol. I, 392. 



UNDER THE PIIOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 23 

operations of the partisan bands of South Carolina and 
her two neighboring States — operations conducted with- 
out military commissions to require or sanction them. We 
shall undertake to show that it was to these voluntary 
uprisings of the people of South Carolina, with the assist- 
ance of their friends in North Carolina and Georgia, that 
the whole of the enemy's plans were foiled, frustrated, and 
broken up, and the grand culmination of Yorktown ren- 
dered possible ; and then we shall critically examine the 
relative claims of Greene and Lee, of Sumter, Marion, and 
Pickens, to the glory of this achievement. 

We venture to believe that the record we shall present 
will show that no one of the thirteen original States of 
the Union suffered so severely in the war of the Revolu- 
tion as the State of South Carolina ; that in no one was 
there so much actual warfare ; in no one was there such 
an uprising of the people ; in no one was so much accom- 
plished for the general cause — and that with so little 
assistance. 1 

In the same year that Judge Johnson published his 

1 A chronological list of battles, actions, etc., is given in an Appendix 
to a work entitled Historical Jiec/ister of Officers of the Continental Anmj 
during the War of the Bevolution^ April., 1775., to December, 1788, by 
F. B. Heitnian, Washington, 1898. This list gives the names of 315 
battles, etc. Of these 89 took place in the State of New York, 54 in 
South Carolina, 84 in New Jersey, 24 in Georgia, 21 in North Carolina, 
15 in Canada, 15 in Massachusetts, 14 in Connecticut, 14 in Virginia, 13 
in Pennsylvania, 5 in Rhode Island, 3 in Delaware, 3 in Indiana, 2 in 
Vermont, 1 in Maine, 1 in Nova Scotia, 1 in Florida, 1 in Chesapeake 
Bay, 1 in Lake Champlain, and 3 elsewhere. In a table prepared by the 
author of this work he has a list of 130 battles, engagements, etc., which 
took place in South Carolina, including, of course, the smallest affairs, 
but, on the other hand, including as but one the siege of Charleston, 
which lasted forty days ; the siege of Ninety-Six, which lasted twenty- 
seven days, etc. Ilis tables show that there was actual fighting in every 
county in the State as present organized but three, and that these three 
were traversed by both armies. 



24 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

work there appeared Dr. Alexander Garden's " Anecdotes 
of the Kevokitionary War in America, with Sketches of 
Character of Persons the Most Distinguished in the 
Southern States for Civil and Military Services." The 
title of this work is an injustice to its historical character. 
It is really a series of most valuable biographical sketches. 
The popular title by which it is known, " Garden's An- 
ecdotes," would not lead one to consult it for the valuable 
historical information which it contains. The anecdotes 
proper which it relates are but a small part of the work. 
Authentic sketches and incidents of the Revolution form 
by far the greater part. 

Besides the numerous published Avorks upon the subject 
of the Revolution, British and American, which we have 
been able to consult, too numerous to mention, Ave have 
been so fortunate as to have had access to two volumes 
of manuscript letters and papers of General Sumter, con- 
taining all of General Greene's letters to him, and also to 
copies of his letters to General Greene, few of which have 
yet been j^ublished. This correspondence, together Avith 
that published by Major Henry Lee, the son of Colonel 
Henry Lee, in his Avork entitled " Campaigns in the Caro- 
linas," 1824, written in ansAver to Mr. Justice Johnson's 
claims in behalf of General Greene, throw great light upon 
the subject, and we think Avill be found to sustain the posi- 
tion Ave shall take in regard to the relative merits of the 
services of these distinguished men. 

In 1802 Governor John Drayton published under the 
title of " A View of South Carolina " a brief, but most 
valuable, treatise relating to the interior economy and 
material resources of the State, containing important sta- 
tistical information. To this he added, in 1821, tAvo vol- 
umes of Memoirs, compiled principally from the papers of 
William Henry Drayton, his distinguished father, in Avhich 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 26 

lie lias preserved important original material, chiefly re- 
lating to the years immediately preceding the Revolution. 

In 1820 the Rev. Frederick Dalclio, M.D., compiled 
his church history. It is entitled "An Historical Ac- 
count of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Caro- 
lina," etc., but it is far more than a history of the Church 
of which he writes. It is full of the most important 
information in regard to the province generally and is 
entirely free from sectarian bias. 

Mills's Statistics of South Carolina, etc., published in 
1826, was intended, as the author states in his preface, as 
an appendix to his great work, the " Atlas of the State." 
It is full of curious and interesting information ; unfort- 
unately, however, it is not so reliable historically as his 
atlas, which must ever remain the basis of every subse- 
quent work. His statistics are unquestioned and supply 
a want in the history of the State. Historically, how- 
ever, he is inaccurate. His list of the Proprietary and 
Royal Governors, which is usually followed, is incorrect, 
as he makes no distinction between the Governors and 
Lieutenant Governors, presidents of council or others 
acting ad interim. There were no natives of Carolina 
Governors under the Royal rule. 

He watt cites no authorities in his work, and indeed 
appears to have had access to few original papers, and, 
as we have observed, Ramsay added nothing in this line ; 
it remained for Mr. B. R. Carroll, in 1886, to give to the 
State the first collection of orimnal documents relating" 
to the Proprietary and Royal Governments. It is diffi- 
cult to estimate the value of this contribution to the 
study of the history of the State in tlie two volumes 
published. His compilation is entitled " Historical Col- 
lections of South Carolina, Embracing Many Rare and 
Valuable Pamphlets and Other Documents Relating to 



26 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the History of the State from its Discovery to its Inde- 
pendence in the Year 1776." The first of these volumes 
contains a republication of Hewatt's History. *The second 
is the most valuable as containing the original papers 
upon which much of the history of the province must 
depend. 

William Gilmore Simms, tlie poet, novelist, and histo- 
rian of the State, in 1840 produced a volume originally 
conceived with the view to the instruction of an only 
daughter in the history of her birthplace. His purpose, 
he tells us in the preface to the last edition of the work, 
was to present something more than an abridgment of 
the previous cumbersome volumes relating to the his- 
tory of the State in a cheap and popular form. He made 
no original research ; but accepted the statements of 
Hewatt and Ramsay, endeavoring only to simplify and 
popularize the style of their story. His history, so pre- 
pared, has gone through several editions, 1840, 1842, 1860, 
but is now out of print. The historical reputation of the 
author does not, however, depend upon his professed his- 
tory, but rather upon his historical novels. It is in these 
that Mr. Simms has brought out the strong individuality 
of the Carolina character as it impressed itself upon the 
struggle of the Revolution, " and developed into that 
unique partisan warfare so bold in its conception, so 
brilliant in its performance, so triumphant in its results." 
" And I cannot refer to this glorious portion of our his- 
tory," observes one of the most distinguished sons of 
Carolina, the Hon. William Henry Trescot, " without ac- 
knowledging tlie debt which I think the State owes to 
one of her most distinguished sons for the fidelity with 
which he has preserved its memory, the vigor and beauty 
with which he has painted its most stirring scenes and 
kept alive in fiction the portraits of its most famous 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 27 

heroes. I consider Mr. Simms's partisan novels as an 
invaluable contribution to Carolina history." ^ 

In 1851 Joseph Johnson, M.D., published a volume of 
" Traditions and Reminiscences Chiefly of the American 
Revolution in the South, including Biographical Sketches, 
Incidents, and Anecdotes," etc. This is as it purports to 
be a volume of traditions and reminiscences. It does not 
assume to be a connected history, nor to be taken from 
original sources. The traditions which the author gives 
are sometimes, therefore, found to be incorrect, as tradi- 
tions in their details often are, but the volume has never- 
theless preserved many most valuable loose papers, and 
has rescued from oblivion and preserved many most im- 
portant and interesting incidents. Especially so in re- 
gard to the upper country. Its great value, like that of 
the second volume of Ramsay's History, is in its biograph- 
ical sketches and Revolutionary incidents. 

In 1853 R. W. Gibbes, M.D., published a volume of 
" Documentary History of the American Revolution, Con- 
sisting of Letters and Papers Relating to the Contest for 
Liberty. Chiefly in South Carolina in 1781 and 1782, 
from originals in the possession of the editor and from other 
sources." Dr. Gibbes says in his preface that the series 
of letters collected b}' General Peter Horry, which he 
pul)lished, had been in the hands of Weems, Garden, and 
Simms, who have each written a life of Marion. To tliese 
he has added a few letters, which he selected from Tarle- 
ton's Memoirs, Ramsay's Revolution in South Carolina, 
Johnson's Life of Greene, Lee's Memoirs and Lee's Cam- 
paign of 1781. The original letters to and from Greene, 
Sumter, and Marion, and of Governor Rutledge, etc., are 
of the greatest historical value. In 1855 Dr. Gibbes fol- 

^ Oration of Hon. William Henry Ti-esoot before the South Carolina 
Historical Society, May 19, 1859, Coll. Hist. So. Sc, vol. HI, 20. 



28 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lowed this volume with a second, and in 1857 with a third, 
bearing the same title, composed chiefly of original papers; 
the second relating to the early period of the Revolution, 
and the third to the later. The two last are quite as 
valuable as the first. 

^ In 1856 Mr. Plowden C. J. Weston printed for private 
distribution a volume entitled " Documents Connected 
with the History of South Carolina." These documents 
are five in number. The first two, viz. "The Land 
Travels of David Ingram, 1568-9," and the " Letters of 
Capt. Thomas Young," etc., 1634, relate but indirectly, if 
at all, to the history of Carolina. The other three are 
very important. They are : (1) '' Governor Glen's An- 
swers to the Lords of Trade," which are evidently the 
original of a tract entitled "A Description of Carolina," 
etc., published in London, 1761, and reprinted in Carroll's 
collection ; (2) " Tire Letters of Richard Cumberland, 
Esq., to Roger Pinckney, Esq., his Deputy, with Regard 
to the Provost Marshalship of South Carolina," and 
(3) " De Braham's Philosophico-Historico-Hydrogeography 
of South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida." 

The State owes a debt of deep gratitude to these col- 
lectors of historical material, but no less is due to Professor 
William James Rivers for the first standard work upon 
her history. In 1856 Professor Rivers, then of the South 
Carolina College, published " A Sketch of the History of 
South Carolina to the Close of the Proprietary Govern- 
ment, 1719, with Appendix Containing Many Valuable 
Records." This history is compiled from original docu- 
ments, and the authorities upon which he relies for his 
statements are all given. Its accuracy has recently been 
severely tested by the publication of the Colonial Records 
of North Carolina, many of which records of the time of 
the Proprietary Government are really the records of this 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 29 

province, and, in the main, incidentally only to North Caro- 
lina — and also by the manuscript recently obtained by 
this State from the State paper office in London. This 
test has sustained the accuracy of Professor Rivers's ^york, 
and vindicated his conclusions to a remarkable degree. 

Professor Rivers has made other most valuable contri- 
butions to the History of the State, Topics on the History 
of South Carolina, Chapters on Colonial History, etc. 

The " Collection of the Historical Society of South 
Carolina," the publication of which was begun in 1857, 
but which, from the late Avar and various causes, have 
been impeded, contain a vast amount of information, and 
are invaluable to the student. The original documents 
are all important : but the great value of the work con- 
sists in the " List and Abstract of Documents Relating to 
South Carolina now Existing in the State Paper Office, 
London," prepared for the Society by their agent, the late 
W. Noel Sainsbury, assistant keeper of the public records ; 
the Records of Council of Safety in the beginning of the 
Revolution ; and Mr. Laurens's narrative of his capture 
and imprisonment in the town from 1780 to 1782. 

In 1858 the Hon. John Belton O'Neal, Chief Justice of 
the State, published a small volume entitled " The Annals 
of Newberry," in which much information in regard to 
the settlement of that district (now county) is given. 
The next year, 1859, the first volume of a proposed His- 
tory of the Upper Country of South Carolina, by John H. 
Logan, appeared. It is deeply to be regretted that the 
war, and Mr. Logan's subsequent death, should have put 
an end to this admirable work, Avhich promised to be of 
such great value to the State. The volume published is full 
of the most curious information. In 1867 the " History 
of the Old Cheraws," by the Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, 
D.D., was published. This work contains an account of 



30 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the aborigines of the Pee-Dee, the first white settlements, 
their subsequent progress, civil changes, the struggle of 
the Revolution, and growth of the country afterward, from 
1730 to 1810, with notices of families and sketches of in- 
dividuals. It offers the most complete history of a given 
section of the State to be found. In 1870 the Rev. George 
Howe, D.D., professor in the Theological Seminary, Co- 
lumbia, South Carolina, published a " History of the Pres- 
byterian Church in South Carolina." This volume is a 
mine of information in regard to the settlement of the 
upper part of the State. It contains much new matter in 
regard to the lower country also ; but its chief value is 
in the material the reverend author has collected about 
the settlements of the other section. He has done very 
much to supply the work upon which Mr. Logan was en- 
gaged. It is not without its significance that the two 
Church histories, Episcopal and Presbyterian, should em- 
body so much that is of interest and value to the State at 
large. 

In 1891 the General Assembly of the States provided 
for the appointment of a commission of five citizens to be 
known as " The Public Record Commission of South 
Carolina." The records now known as the Shaftesbury 
papers, the transcripts of which aggregate about a thou- 
sand closely written cap-size pages, remained in the 
family of Sir Ashley Cooper for two centuries. The late 
Earl about twenty years ago deposited these original docu- 
ments in the Public Record office in London. These 
papers were at once classified, catalogued, and made ac- 
cessible to the public. In preparing the address in 1883 
on the occasion of the " Centennial of Incorporation of the 
City of Charleston," the Hon. William A. Courtenay, then 
mayor of the city, had sent him through Mr. Sainsbury 
some of the earliest letters and other documents which 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 31 

lie used upon that occasion. The names of the colonists 
who came out in the Carolina under Governor Sayle were 
first published in that address. Impressed with the im- 
portance of the partial information thus obtained, he sug- 
gested to the City Council to secure transcripts of the 
remaining papers. This was done, and subsequently 
these earliest records of South Carolina were deposited 
with the South Carolina Historical Society, accompanied 
by an appropriation to promote their publication. The 
General Assembly of the State also contributed to the 
same purpose, and these valuable records are now in press 
and will shortly appear. Mayor Courtenay has for two 
decades been an active worker in State history ; during 
his mayoralty he edited and published eight octavo vol- 
umes of municipal department reports, with an appendix 
to each volume of original historical papers. These ap- 
pendices contain in all twelve hundred pages of interesting 
and valuable material not accessible elsewhere. His Cen- 
tennial Address, subsequently revised and enlarged at the 
request of the City Council, contains the only connected 
sketch of the history of Charleston in print. The church 
histories prepared especially for his Year Books are full of 
local information of value. In the Cartography of South 
Carolina there are twenty-four maps, from tlie first ever 
drawn of dates 1672 down to later years. The most of 
these are rare and difficult to purchase even at high prices. 
Each map has been reproduced in fac-simile from originals, 
and together form a most desirable cartographical collec- 
tion. In 1890-91 Mayor Courtenay originated a plan for 
procuring transcripts of all the papers relating to South 
Carolina in the London record office, and was chiefly in- 
strumental in obtaining the passage of an act creating the 
Public Record Commission of South Carolina. This 
commission consisted of the Hon. J. E. Tindall, Secretary 



32 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of State, ex officio chairman, the Hon. Henry Mclver, Chief 
Justice, Hon. William A. Courtenay, Hon. W. C. Benet, 
and Professor R. Means Davis, whose duty it was made 
to procure transcripts of such documents relating to the 
history of South Carolina as they might deem necessary 
or important, and appropriations were made for the pur- 
pose. The commission immediately upon its appointment 
chose Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, who was then retired from 
his official position in England, as the agent of the State 
for the purpose of procuring transcripts of every paper 
relating to the province and colony of Carolina from the 
date of the first charter of the Lords Proprietors, 1663, to 
the overthrow of the Royal Government, in 1775. In the 
three years since the commission has received and placed 
in the office of the Secretary of State thirty-six volumes 
of manuscript colonial records and fifteen hundred pages 
of missing journals of the Commons House of Assembly. 
These volumes, together with the colonial records of 
North Carolina, obtained from the same source and pub- 
lished by that State, and the Shaftesbury papers, copied 
for the City Council of Charleston, in 1883, under the 
direction of Mayor Courtenay, deposited with the South 
Carolina Historical Society, and just now about to be pub- 
lished, with the papers published as appendix to the work 
of Professor Rivers's Historical Sketches of Soutli Caro- 
lina, present nearly, if not ever}^ paper of public interest 
relating to the early history of the province. The man- 
uscript volumes thus obtained by the commission have 
been entitled by them ''Public Records," and will be so 
quoted in the following work. 

A great revival of interest in colonial history has re- 
cently taken place all over the country, and rencAved 
attention is given to that of each of the old thirteen 
States. In this study the history of this State is receiv- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 38 

ing its full share. In the series of studies instituted by 
the Johns Hopkins University in historical and political 
science three volumes have been issued relating to South 
Carolina. 

The first of these is one by B. James Ramage, A.B., 
entitled " Local Government and Free Schools in South 
Carolina," first part read before the Historical Society of 
South Carolina, December 15, 1882. It is composed of 
two short essays, in the first of which the author traces 
very briefly the history of the organizations of the parish, 
district, and county, and in the second that of the free 
schools. It is to be regretted that the limits which the 
author prescribed for himself did not permit a further 
investigation into these interesting subjects — a regret 
the more felt because of the excellent treatment of them 
as far as he has gone. 

The second of these is one by Shirley Carter Hughson, 
entitled " The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce, 
1670-1740" (Twelfth Series, V, VI, VII), 1894. The 
title to this volume we think misleading. There were 
few or no "Carolina Pirates." Pirates infested the Caro- 
lina coast. When their nest in New Providence was 
broken up in 1718 by the British Government, they sought 
refuge in the Cape Fear and other less commodious har- 
bors on the coast, and from these points they carried on 
their depredations. But these pirates were as much ene- 
mies of the people of Carolina as the Indian savages in 
the woods behind our colony. While, however, we differ 
from the author in some respects, we recognize the thor- 
oughness of his work, and admire his graphic descriptions 
of the actions between the Carolina forces and these for- 
midable buccaneers. Mr. Hughson's story of these pirates 
and of tlie manner in which they were met, beaten, and 
destroyed by Colonel Rhett and Governor Robert Johnson 



34 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

is well told and full of romance. We shall follow closely 
his statements of facts in regard to them. 

The other volume, published by the Johns Hopkins 
University, is one by Professor Edison L. Whitney, Ph.D., 
LL.B., professor of history, Benzonia, Michigan. This 
monograph, the author says, aims to give a description of 
the Government of South Carolina during the colonial 
period from the constitutional point. The author states 
in his preface that the foot-notes have been made more 
numerous than was necessary in order to show to the 
reader where to turn for fuller information, rather than 
to furnish authorities for statements in his work. This, 
we think, is unfortunate, for in such a work the most 
important purpose of such notes is to give the authority 
upon which the historian relies for his statements, and in 
this work the authorities given in the notes do not always, 
we think, bear out the statements of the text. The author 
has undoubtedly given much patient research to his sub- 
ject and has consulted a number of authorities to which 
he refers. His difficulty has been that in pursuing " the 
special method" which he has adopted, rather than a 
chronological order, he has at times lost the liistorical con- 
nection Avhich is necessary in order to understand the pro- 
visions of the law he cites. He has attempted to evolve 
a system from the letter of the statute without reference 
to the circumstances under which it was passed or to the 
question Avhether it was indeed actually put in operation. 

He has also fallen into the serious error of stating that 
while Lieiitenant Governors were frequently appointed in 
the islands, they were seldom on the Continent, and tliat 
Colonel Broughton was the only Lieutenant Governor com- 
missioned in South Carolina. This is altogether a mis- 
take. Lieutenant Governors were often appointed on 
the Continent. They were so appointed in New York, 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 35 

Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and E'lorida. Lieu- 
tenant Governor Broughton, who succeeded to the admin- 
istration of the government upon the death of Governor 
Robert Johnson, May 3, 1735, died on the 22d No- 
vember, 1737, whereupon, no Governor having yet been 
appointed by his Majesty in the place of Governor John- 
son, William Bull, the son of Stephen Bull, the emi- 
grant, succeeded to the administration as President of 
the Council, but on the 3d of June, 1738, was appointed 
Lieutenant Governor, and so continued until his death, 
23d May, 1755, a period of seventeen years. His son, 
William Bull, who had been Speaker while his father was 
Lieutenant Governor, was commissioned Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor in 1759, and so continued until the overthrow of 
the Royal Government in 1775, a period of sixteen years. 
The father and son thus being Lieutenant Governors 
thirty-three years. Neither father nor son was ever Gov- 
ernor. The list of Royal Governors, given in Appendix 
II to the work, following that prepared by Mills, is in- 
correct. Arthur Middleton was never Governor. He 
was " President of the Council," and as such adminis- 
tered the government during the absence of Governor 
Nicholson. He was addressed as " President and Com- 
mander-in-chief." The first Lieutenant Governor Bull's 
administration was between the death of Governor John- 
son and the appearance in the province of Governor Glen 
(five years after his appointment). He continued as Lieu- 
tenant Governor for twelve years, during Governor Glen's 
commission, and after, until liis death. The second Lieu- 
tenant Governor Bull held his commission through the 
administrations of Governors Lyttleton, Boone, Lord 
Charles Greville Montague, and Lord William Camp- 
bell. Neither was deputy to any particular Governor, 
but held his office independently of the Governor's tenure. 



S6 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The Governor was addressed as " His Excellency " ; the 
Lieutenant Governor, even though administering the gov- 
ernment, was but "His Honor." 

This error of the author touches upon a material point 
in the Colonial history of South Carolina. It was one 
of the grievances of the colonists that none of them 
could ever hope to receive the highest appointments in 
the province. These were reserved for placemen from 
England. Broughton and the Bulls, however well they 
might administer the government in the absence of a 
Governor, could never aspire to be more than Lieutenant 
Governors ; Charles Pinckney, however learned as a 
lawyer, could hold the office of Chief Justice only until it 
suited the convenience of the Royal Government to 
bestow it upon some disappointed favorite at Westmin- 
ster. The colonists resisted the ignoring of Pinckney's 
appointment by the local government as Chief Justice 
in the place of Graeme, deceased, and the sending out Mr. 
Peter Leigh, a discredited English barrister, instead. They 
were especially urgent that William Bull, the younger, 
should receive tlie appointment of Royal Governor to suc- 
ceed Lord Montague, and the appointment of Lord William 
Campbell instead was perhaps one of the influences which 
turned the scales of the Revolution in South Carolina. 

Among the contributions to Educational History, edi- 
ted by Herbert B. Adams and published by the bureau 
of education of the United States, is a very able mono- 
graph, in 1889, entitled " History of Higher- Education 
in South Carolina, with a Sketch of the Free School Sys- 
tem," by Colyer Meriwether, A.B., Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity. In this sketch is traced the development of the 
free or public school system of the State. The earliest 
educational efforts are described and instances are given 
illustrating the interest of South Carolina, when yet a 
colony, in providing the .means for the intellectual 



UNDER THE PKOPUIETAUY GOVKUNM KNT 37 

improvement of her sons. To this volume is added as 
an appendix a republication of a paper read before the 
Historical Society of South Carolina, August 6, 1888, by 
Edward McCrady, Jr., entitled "Colonial Education in 
South Carolina " — a refutation of the charge made by 
Mr. McMaster, in his History of the People of the 
United States, of the neglect of education in South 
Carolina prior to and during the Revolution. 

The present volume will be restricted to the history of 
South Carolina during the Proprietary Government, i.e. 
from the settlement of the colony nnder the Royal 
charter to the overthrow of the Proprietors' rule, in 1719, 
a period of fifty years. A very brief review will be 
taken of the first explorations of the coast and the 
attempted Huguenot colony under Ribault. We shall 
more critically examine the exegesis of the charters under 
which the colony was fonnded, and the famous Funda- 
mental Constitutions of Locke, which the Proprietors so 
persistently attempted to impose. We shall trace the 
progress of the colony from the arrival of the first adven- 
turers and their settlement at Old Town on the Ashley; 
its removal to Oyster Point, the present site of the city 
of Charleston, and its gradual extension; the peopling of 
the province from different sources, and the peculiar 
influences upon its development of the Barbadian and 
Huguenot elements of the population. We shall tell of 
the struggle between the Proprietors to enforce the 
extraordinary system devised by Locke, and the success- 
ful resistance of the people under the lex scripta of the 
charters. Then we shall follow the contest over the 
Church Acts involving the naturalization of the Hugue- 
nots, resisted by the dissenters because of the affiliations 
of those people with the churchmen. These commotions 
we shall see to have had their origin in the mother 



38 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

country, and to have been intimately connected with the 
purposes of political parties there. The devolution of 
the titles of the Proprietary shares in the province by 
deaths and assignments we shall observe materially 
affecting the affairs of the colony. 

We shall tell of the contests of the colonists with the 
Spaniards, the French, the Indians, and the pirates — liow 
well they maintained the outpost so necessary to tlie 
claim of England's dominion on the American Continent, 
and how firmly and bravely they met the pirates, consti- 
tuting, at the time, a power which defied the distant 
governments of Europe, and preyed upon the colonial 
commerce — how vigorously and sternly they brought 
those enemies of the human race to judgment and 
inflicted upon them the extreme penalties of the law. 

Despite political turmoil, hurricane, pestilence, and fire, 
the tomahawk of the Indian, and the sword of the French 
and Spaniard, we shall find the colony gradually devel- 
oping from an emigrants' camp to social order and settled 
government, and carrying on successfully at their ex- 
treme end of the line of English colonies the experiment 
of representative government. We shall find them lay- 
ing the foundation of great fortunes, building churches, 
quarrelling over religion, but withal strenuously maintain- 
ing it, and curiously mixing Puritan fanaticism with High 
Church dogma, fonnding schools and libraries, and laying 
so broad and deep the foundations of jurisprudence that 
that structure has continued to this day to rest upon the 
code of laws adopted in 1712. 

Then we shall have to tell of the revolution encour- 
aged, if not indeed instigated, by the Royal Government 
in England, by Avhich the Proprietary Government was 
overthrown, and the province of South Carolina taken 
under the immediate government of his jNIajesty, King 
George the First. 






CHAPTER I 

Christopher Columbus accepting the theory of the ro- 
tundity of the earth, in 1492 sailed westward, assured that 
unless he discovered some new country in the yet unex- 
plored seas he must reach the Indies, the easternmost 
limits of the known world. Upon his discovery of the 
islands which he supposed to be the Indies, he returned 
to Spain with the great tidings, and Pope Alexander VI 
generously bestowed the new countries upon the King- 
doms of Leon and Castile, on the condition that they 
should labor to extirpate idolatries and plant the holy 
faith in the New World. In his second voyage, in 1493, 
Columbus discovered more islands and coasted along a 
part of South America. In his first voyage his course 
had been diverted by the flight of birds to the southwest 
— and never, it has been said, had a flight of birds such 
important consequences. This southerly direction Colum- 
bus and his followers continued to pursue, and so it was 
that the northern continent escaped their knowledge. 

Had the course of Columbus not thus been deflected, he 
would have entered the warm current of the Gulf Stream, 
have reached Florida, and thence perhaps been carried to 
the coast of Carolina or Virginia. The result would prob- 
ably have been, as it has been observed, that the territory 
of the present United States would have been given a 
Roman Catholic Spanish population instead of a Protes- 
tant English one — a circumstance of immeasurable im- 

39 



40 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

portance.^ As it happened, the only foothold the Spaniards 
obtained in this territory was in Florida, and the only 
English colonists with whom they came in contact and 
collision were those in Carolina. In the year 1496 John 
Cabot, a Venetian then in England, perceiving by the globe, 
as he thought, that the islands found by Columbus stood 
almost in the same latitude with England, and much 
nearer thereto than to Portugal and Castile, obtained from 
King Henry VII two ships and three hundred men, with 
which he embarked upon a voyage of discovery of his 
own. He sailed westwardly, discovered Newfoundland, 
and coasted along the shores of North America, Salvano 
says, till he came to 38 degrees towards the equinoctial 
line — that is, somewhere off the coast of Virginia, and 
from thence returned to England. " There be others," he 
adds, " which say that he went as far as the Cape of Florida 
which standeth in 25 degrees. "^ Columbus was diverted 
to the south by the flight of birds. Sebastian Cabot, 
upon the death of his father, like Columbus, seeking a way 
to India, ascended Hudson's Bay, and pressed on among ice- 
bergs until the mutiny of her crew compelled him to turn 
back. Thus it was that the first discoverers of America, 
seeking a way to India, turned aside from the great Con- 
tinent, the one to the tropics, and the other to the Arctic 
•egions. 

In 1495 the Spaniards had established tliemselves upon 
ihe Island of Hayti or Hispaniola, which became the seat 
of their great power in the Western Hemisphere. It was 
not, however, until seventeen years later that tliey became 
aware of the Continent so near them on the north. In 
1512 Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the mainland of 
Florida on Easter, Pasclia Floridum, the supposed deri- 

1 John Nichol, LL.D., Encyclopedia Britannica, "America." 

2 Hakluyt's Voyages^ Supplement, 17, 18. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 41 

vatioii of the name. He landed, it is said, at a place 
called the Bay of the Cross, a few miles north of the site 
of St. Augustine, took possession, and erected a stone cross 
in sign of the jurisdiction of Spain. This was to be the 
place of the first European settlement on the Continent of 
America, and was to be the source of numerous woes to 
the English colonists of Carolina. 

The first Europeans who trod the soil of Carolina were 
Spaniards who sailed in 1520 from Hispaniola, seeking in 
the Lucayos or Bahama Islands a supply of Indians to take 
back with them to work as slaves in their gold mines, a 
third part of the nation of Hispaniola having perished 
within three years after the Spaniards took possession of 
the island. Two vessels fitted out by Lucas Vasquez 
de AUyon for this purpose, driven by tempest, more by 
chance than with any design of discovery, reached the 
coast about the latitude of 32 degrees. The adventurers 
entered a bay, a cape of which they named St. Helena, 
and a river in its vicinity they called the Jordan.^ 
Though the Spaniards had now been at St. Augustine 
for eight years, the natives of the region do not appear 
to have known of their presence. When, therefore, the 
Spanish vessels made to the shore, the natives, aston- 
ished as at a miracle, thought some monster had come 
among them — they never before having seen a vessel. 
They fled upon the approach of the vessels, but two swift 
and nimble young Spaniards overtook a man and Avoman 
and brought them to the ship. Clothing and loading these 
with presents and sending them back, the Spaniards gained 

1 Rivers, after a close examination of the accounts of early voyages, 
old maps, and charts, is not prepared to admit that the " Jordan " is the 
Combahee, as most writers assert, but concludes that the "Jordan" 
could not have been far from the Savannah. Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 15. 



42 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the confidence of the Indians, and were kindly treated by 
them. After some stay on the coast and a partial exami- 
nation of the country, the Spaniards enticed the Indians, 
whose confidence they had gained, on board their vessels, 
and when their decks were crowded they suddenly drew 
up their anchor and unfurled their sails, carrying off to a 
wretched fate the guests they had received with all the 
appearances of friendship. One of the vessels on its re- 
turn foundered at sea, and all on board perished. Many 
of the captives on the remaining vessel, pining with grief, 
refused to take food and died before the end of the voyage. 
Of those who survived, most languished in their bondage 
and sank under their sufferings. The rest became too 
feeble for the mines and were distributed among the 
people of Hispaniola as domestic servants or in the 
lighter tasks of husbandry. 

The countries around the bay into which the ships of 
Vasquez had entered on the one side were called Duharhe 
or Gualdape, and on the other Chicora.^ Vasquez, who 
was a citizen of Toledo, a licentiate, professor of judi- 
cature, one of the senators of Hispaniola, returning to 
Spain to procure leave to plant a colony, took with liim 
as a servant one of the Chicoranes, whom he had baptized, 
giving to him the Christian name Francis and the sur- 
name of Chicora. Peter Martyr in his history of the New 
World says that he sometimes had both Vasquez the mas- 
ter and Chicora his servant as his guests, and retails the 
most extraordinary stories which they told concerning the 
inhabitants of Chicora and Duharhe, especially of the lat- 
ter country, whose inhabitants they said were Avhite, and 
had a king of giant-like stature and height, called Datha, 

1 Rivers calls attention to the mistake made by several authors in 
giving the name of Chicora to the whole of this country, and not merely 
to a part of it, as in the text. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 43 

and that the queen his wife was not much shorter than 
himself. Martyr was not, however, inclined to accept these 
wonderful tales told by Vasquez, " nor did Francis the 
Chicorane, who was present," he observes, " free us from 
that controversie." ^ Indeed, as Rivers observes, the captive 
seems to have acquiesced in any story his master made.^ 

In the year 1524 Vasquez made another voyage to the 
coast of Carolina ; but the true events of the expedition 
are not certainly known. ^ It is believed that he reached 
in safety the place which he had before visited, that one 
of his vessels was stranded, and that a number of his 
men whom he sent ashore perished by the hands of the 
natives — a just retaliation for his treacherous conduct in 
the previous expedition. 

The failure of this expedition and the equally disastrous 
fate of Narvaez and of De Soto and their companions 
disheartened the Spaniards, and their abandonment of the 
country for forty years left it open to exploration and 
occupancy by adventurers from other European states. 

In January, 1524, Giovanni Verrazzano set out on a 
voyage of discovery in behalf of F'rancis I of France.^ He 
reached the Continent 34 degrees north latitude, and 
searching for a harbor landed probably in the neighbor- 
hood of Cape Fear. He returned to France in July of the 
same year. Upon this discovery and those made in Canada, 
the French claimed the greater part of North America 
under the title of New France ; but civil and religious 
wars at home distracted at the time their attention from 

1 Hakluyt's Voyages, Supplement, 620, 621. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 16. 

3 Hakluyt's Voyages, Supplement, 33 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 17. 

■* Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, 295 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 
18. 



44 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the New World. Thirty odd years after, Coligny, admiral 
of France and leader of the Huguenot party, obtained per- 
mission from Charles IX to establish a colony of Prot- 
estants in New France. Jean Ribault was sent out in 
command of two of the King's ships and a company of 
veterans, together with many gentlemen who joined the 
expedition, to discover a suitable place for the colony.^ 

The course of navigation from Europe to America had 
continued to follow the direction given to it by Columbus, 
'hy way of the Spanish Islands in the West Indies, but Ri- 
bault ventured directly across the Atlantic, and on the 30th 
of April, 1562, reached the Continent in 30 degrees north 
latitude. He landed at a river he called Ma}^ because he 
discovered it on the first of the month of that name, but 
it is now known as the St. John's River in Florida. From 
this point Ribault sailed along the coast towards the north, 
looking for the River " Jordan," which the Spaniards had 
visited forty years before ; and on the 27th of May he 
cast anchor in a depth of ten fathoms, at the opening of a 
spacious bay, which from cape to cape was three leagues 
wide and formed the entrance to a noble river, which he 
named Port Royal. 

Charmed with the magnificent forests, the stately 
cedars, the wide-spreading oaks, and fragrant shrubs, they 
explored the adjacent country ; they sailed up the Broad 
River, and passed probably through Whale Branch uniting 
with the Coosaws.2 Tlie Indians fled at first upon the 
approach of the French, but their timidity was soon over- 
come by the siglit of various articles of merchandise, and 
they were encouraged by friendly gestures ; in their turn 
they brought presents of deerskins, and baskets made of 
palm leaves, and a few pearls. They built an arbor of 

1 Hakluyt's Voyages, vol. Ill, 308-319. 

2 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 22. 



UNDER THE PROPfllETARY GOVERKMENT 45 

boughs to shelter their visitors from the heat of the sun 
and sought with manifest good will to induce Ribault 
and his party to remain with them. This kindness of 
the natives Ribault returned by an attempt to capture 
some of them for the purpose of carrying one or two to 
France, in accordance with the command of the Queen, as 
Verrazzano and Vasquez and Columbus had done before. 
For this purpose he had induced two to accompany him 
to his ships, but when they perceived that they were to be 
carried away they escaped, leaving all the gifts they had 
received. 

Ribaidt then proceeded to take possession of these 
regions in the name of his king and of his country, and 
erected a stone pillar engraved with French armorials 
upon a hillock on an island which is believed to be that 
now known as Lemon Island, about three leagues up 
Broad River. ^ Leaving twenty-six of his followers, who 
volunteered to remain under Captain Albert de la Pierria, 
whom he appointed to command them, Ribault returned 
to France to report to Admiral Coligny what he had 
accomplished and to procure further aid in establishing a 
permanent settlement. 

On the 11th of June, 1562, Ribault and his companions 
took leave of his garrison and fired a salute to Fort Charles, 
as they had named the fort they had built, and from whose 
battlements the flag of France first waved in North Amer- 
ica. Ribault arrived in France on the 20th of July, after 
an absence of five months. He entertained no fear of 
danger to the small garrison he had left at Fort Charles ; 
but the civil war breaking out in France, his return was 
delayed. 

The natives in the neighborhood of Port Royal were 
disposed to be very friendly to the French, and the garri- 
1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 24. 



46 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

son maintained their friendship by presents of knives, 
hatchets, clothing, toys and trinkets, and the still more effi- 
cacious influence of the Indian dread of their firearms 
and superior deadly weapons. But the Indians were im- 
provident, planting no more corn than would serve for one 
season. The safety of the garrison depended, therefore, on 
their own tilling of the fertile lands adjacent to the fort 
and laying in a supply of food, for which they had ample 
time, but with the unthrifty habits of soldiers they were 
as improvident as the Indians. When, however, their pro- 
visions first began to run short they were abundantly sup- 
plied by a powerful Indian chief named Ovade, whose 
friendship they had won ; but through their carelessness 
the provisions thus obtained were accidentally burned. 
Ovade again came to their assistance, and assured them 
that as long as he could aid them they should not want. 
He gave them also some pearls, and silver ore which he 
said could be found among the mountains toward the 
north at a distance of ten days' travel. The wealth of the 
mountains of Northwestern South Carolina and Western 
North Carolina, which is just now being opened, thus ap- 
pears to have been known to the Indians at that time. 

But the greatest troubles of the garrison left by Ribault 
were at hand. Captain Albert was a man of imperious 
temper and rigid in the discipline which he attempted to 
enforce, while, on the other hand, the privations to which 
the soldiers were reduced rendered them less subordinate. 
Albert grew more stern and harsh. A drummer was exe- 
cuted, and another of the garrison banished to an island 
three leagues from the fort. Upon this the garrison broke 
into open mutiny, murdered Albert, and bestowed the com- 
mand upon Nicholas Barr^. 

Despairing of the return of Ribault, the garrison began 
to seek the means of venturing upon the ocean in an 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 47 

attempt to return to France. They had carpenters among 
them, and a forge and iron and tools. What they needed 
most were sails and cordage. Resin they procured from 
the pine, and moss from the oak, with which they calked 
their vessel. They turned their shirts and sheets into 
sails, and their Indian friends taught them to make cord- 
age from the inner bark of trees. Unfortunately while 
taking their artillery, forge, and munitions of war in this 
weak vessel they took but a small supply of food, though 
they had an abundance on hand. 

Sailing with a favorable wind, they had gone only about 
one-third of the distance across the Atlantic, when calms 
befell them. Their provisions were soon so diminished 
that the daily allowance to each man was but twelve 
grains of millet. They were soon compelled to eat their 
shoes and leathern jackets and to drink the water of the 
sea. Some died of hunger. The boat leaked on all sides 
and required constant bailing. A storm arose and injured 
their frail vessel so much that in their despair they ceased 
their exertions and laid them down to die. Tlien, inspired 
with hopes by one more courageous than the rest, they 
agreed that one should die that the rest might live. 
Lots were cast, and it fell to Lachere, the man Captain 
Albert had banished and whose life his comrades had 
saved, now to die for them. He willingly gave back this 
boon to his starving friends. Soon after this they met 
an English vessel and were carried to England. 

As soon as peace was partially restored in France, the 
Calvinists having secured the freedom of worship in the 
towns they held, Coligny revived his project of coloniza- 
tion, and Laudoniere was dispatched in command of three 
ships, and reached America in June, 1564. He must have 
received information of the abandonment of Fort Charles, 
for he did not visit it again, but proceeded to Florida, 



48 HISTORY 01? SOUTH CAROLINA 

where he built a fort on the May Riv^r, which he named 
Fort Caroline. 

This fort was afterwards, while under the command of 
Ribault, who had returned and superseded Laudoniere, 
destroyed by the Spaniards from St. Augustine, under 
Menendez, and the garrison massacred. The story is 
told that beneath the tree on whose branches Menendez 
hung his French prisoners was placed an inscription, " I 
do not this as to Frenchmen ; but as to heretics." This 
was avenged by the Chevalier de Gourges, who sailed from 
France with an expedition raised at his OAvn expense for 
the purpose, and hanging the Spaniards to the same trees, 
altered the inscription to read, "I did not do this as to 
Spaniards nor as to infidels ; but as to traitors, thieves, and 
murderers." 

Thus ended the first attempt to establish a colony of 
Huguenots in what is now Carolina ; but these simple 
yet heroic people were again to come' and to impress their 
gentle manners, their gallantry, their frugality, and above 
all their religious tone upon those with whom they were 
to form the people of South Carolina. 

The attempted settlement at Port Royal forms an epi- 
sode in the history of the territory. It gave to the whole 
region the name of Carolina in honor of Charles IX of 
France, and to the river on which it was planted, that 
of Port Royal. These names are all that remain of 
Ribault's enterprise. And except these names, and per- 
haps some tradition which may still have existed among the 
Indians when the English colonists arrived in the century 
after, and which may have influenced their conduct to the 
new adventurers for good or evil, it left no impression 
whatever upon tlie history which follows. 

No other settlement was effected in Carolina for more 
than a hundred years after the abandonment of the French 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 49 

colony at Port Royal. In the meanwhile Sir Walter 
Raleigh's attempted colonies on the Roanoke in 1585 and 
1587 had likewise ended disastrously ; but later English 
colonies had been successfully planted in Virginia in 1607 ; 
in Massachusetts in 1620 ; the New Netherland Com- 
pany had been formally established on the Hudson in 
1614, another settlement by the Dutch at Bergen opposite 
New York in 1617, permanent settlements 'in Connecticut 
by the same people in 1633, and on the Delaware in 1639 ; 
Lord Baltimore's emigrants had settled at St. Mary's in 
1634. Companies from Massachusetts had spread them- 
selves into Connecticut in 1634-36, and into Rhode Island 
in 1636-39. 

Attention has recently been called to the historical fact 
that as early as the 10th of February, 1629, French Prot- 
estant refugees in England were in communication with 
Charles I for planting a colony in what is now South 
Carolina ; and that the patent issued to Sir Robert Heath 
as sole proprietor of this extensive region grew out of the 
proposals of Soubise, Due de Fontenay, representing 
French refugees in England, and of Antoine de Ridonet, 
Baron de Sauce, his secretary ; and that in 1630 a colony 
of French Protestants actually sailed for Carolina in the 
ship Mayfloiuer. Could it have been, it is asked, the same 
vessel that carried the Puritans to Plymouth Rock ? From 
some unexplained cause these Huguenots were landed in 
Virginia, for which miscarriage the owners of the vessel 
were made to pay X600 damages.^ 

In 1630 a grant was made by King Charles I to Robert 
Heath of all the territory known as Carolina ; but no 
colony was established under it. The first English colony 



1 Hon. William A. Courtenay. In Memoriam, Daniel Ravenel. See 
also Coll. Hist. So. Ca., vol. I, 199, 200. 

£ 



50 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

planted in what is now Soutli Carolina was that sent out 
under the charters of 1663-65 of Charles II. 

The Spaniards claimed Florida, the northern limits of 
which were undefined, and Menendez, who had destroyed 
Fort Caroline and massacred its garrison, had in 1665 
laid the foundation of St. Augustine and built the fort of 
San Mateo, which was so long to be a thorn in the side of 
the Carolina colonists. 

As Rivers observes, notwithstanding the favorable de- 
scription which Verrazzano had given of our climate and 
country, and Ribault's account of the beautiful and com- 
modious harbor of Port Royal, a prejudice had arisen in 
favor of the more northern situations. But the success 
and prosperity of the colonies already established had 
awakened great interest in the mother countr}^, and the 
vast and unexplored territory known as Carolina lying 
between Virginia admittedly under the domain of Great 
Britain, and Florida equally recognized as belonging to 
Spain, Avith its undefined boundaries, could not be 
allowed by his Majesty the King of England to remain 
unclaimed and unoccupied. So in the second year after 
the restoration, Charles II readily granted to some of his 
adherents and courtiers to whom he was indebted for dis- 
tinguished services, and who claimed to be excited " with 
a laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Chris- 
tian Faith and the Enlargement of our Empire and Domin- 
ions^'^ a charter with extensive powers, for all the region 
lying south of Virginia extending from 31° to 36° north 
latitude, and westward within these parallels across tlie 
Continent, which was to be called Carolina, as it was now 
said, in honor of his Majesty, the said Charles II of 
England. 



« 



CHAPTER II 

European governments claimed their several posses- 
sions in America by right of discovery, by occupancy, 
by conquest, and by treaties with the Indians. It was 
deemed a sufficient ground for a king, upon which to base 
a claim, that a subject had sailed along a coast, and perhaps 
landed a boat's crew and proclaimed possession, and this 
to warrant the grant of lands beyond the shore, the nature 
and extent of which were entirely unknown. A foothold 
once obtained, dominion was asserted by occupancy over 
so much at least as the number of the colony enabled them 
securely to hold. Then followed in some instances so- 
called treaties — bargains by which for a few trinkets the 
natives were held to have ceded whatever right in the 
soil they may have had ; or else upon some pretext of 
wrong, war was declared, the natives driven away or 
slaughtered, and title claimed by right of conquest. 

England claimed her possessions as conquered or ceded 
territory, in which it was held that the King might make, 
alter, and change the law at will ; and that the common 
law therefore had no allowance or authority in them, they 
being no part of the mother country, but distinct though 
dependent dominions. They were subject, however, to 
the control of the Parliament, though not bound by any 
act unless particularly named. ^ 

^ Blackstone's Com.., vol. I, 108 ; Jacob's Laio Dictionary, title 
"Plantation," vol. V, IGO. See the discussion of the doctrine in the 
U. S. Senate by Calhonn and Webster on the proposition to establish 
territorial government in New Mexico and California, February 24, 1849. 

51 



52 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The governments of the English Plantations or Colo- 
nies in America were of three sorts. 

1. Royal or Provincial establishments, the constitution 
of which depended on the respective commissions issued 
by the crown to the governors and the instructions which 
usually accompanied their commissions ; under the author- 
ity of which provincial assemblies were constituted with 
the power of making local ordinances not repugnant to 
the laws of England. 

2. Proprietary governments, granted out by the crown 
to individuals in the nature of feudatory principalities 
with all the inferior regalities and subordinate power of 
legislation which formerly belonged to the owners of 
counties palatine ; yet still with these express conditions, 
that the ends for which the grant was made be substan- 
tially 23ursued and that nothing be attempted which might 
derogate from the sovereignty of the mother country. 

3. Charter governments, in the nature of civil corpora- 
tions with the power of making by-laws for their own 
interior regulation not contrary to the laws of England ; 
and with such rights and authorities as are specially given 
them in their several charters of incorporation. ^ 

This is the order in which Blackstone stated the three 
forms of colonial government of England ; but chrono- 
logically the reverse is the order in which they were 
established. In June, 1579, Queen Elizabeth issued letters 
patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert, authorizing him to dis- 
cover, occupy, and possess such remote " heathen lands 
not actually possessed of any Christian prince or people 
as should seem good to him or them"; but although he 
disposed of his patrimony and all he possessed in fitting 
out a fleet to avail himself of this gracious permission of 
his Queen, the enterprise failed. The first step in the 
1 Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 107-109. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 53 

work of English colonization of America was the grant, 
six years after the permission given to Gilbert, to his half- 
brotlier. Sir Walter Raleigh. This grant was in the 
nature of a charter. It gave to him 

" and to his heires and assigns for euer free libertie and licence from 
time to time and all times for euer hereafter to discouer, search finde 
out and view such remote heathen and barbarous lands countreis 
and territories not actnally possessed of any Christian Prince nor 
inhabited by Christian people," ect. 

The people in those remote lands he was given power 
and authority^ to correct, punish, pardon, govern, and 
rule, 

" according to snch statutes, lawes, and ordinaces as shall bee by him 
the saide Walter Raleigh his heires and assignes and euery or any of 
them deuised or established for the better governement of the said 
people as aforesaid." 

Then follows a proviso which in some form is found in 
all the subsequent charters : — 

" So always as the said statutes lawes and ordinance may be as 
neere as conveniently may be agreeable to the forme of the lawes 
statutes government or policie of P^ngland and also so as they be not 
against the true Christian faith nowe professed in the Church of Eng- 
land, nor in any wise to withdrawe any of the subjects or people 
of those landes or places from the allegiance of vs our heires and suc- 
cessours as their immediate soueraigne vnder God." ^ 

Under this charter Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched five 
fleets in succession in the years 1585 to 1587, and planted 
three small colonies on the coast of what is now North 
Carolina, which disappeared one after the other and left 
no trace. 

No permanent English settlement was effected in what 
now constitutes the United States till the reicfn of 
James I. In 1606 a charter was given b}^ the monarch 

1 Charters and Constitutions — The United States (Poore), 2 vol., 1379- 
1381. 



54 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to Thomas Gates and his associates, certain knights, 
gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers, who were 
to divide themselves into two several colonies. Those 
from the city of London were to begin their plantations 
at some convenient place on the coast of Virginia; those 
from the cities of Bristol and Exeter and the town of 
Plymouth, at some convenient place on the coast of Ncav 
England. 1 Under the charter the dominion of Virginia 
was founded in 1607, and the New England colonies in 
1620. That of Virginia and those of the New England 
colonies subsequently established were the charter gov- 
ernments mentioned by Blackstone, — civil corporations 
with power of making laws for their own interior regula- 
tions subject to the restriction of the charters. 

The first British colonies in America were thus estab- 
lished under charter governments. Then followed a 
series of Proprietary grants. The first of these was of 
the Island of Barbadoes, which was granted to the Earl 
of Marlborough by James I, — a grant which was, how- 
ever, disregarded by his successor, Charles I, who, upon 
ascending the throne, granted to the Earl of Carlisle a 
charter of all the Caribbee Islands, including in the 
enumeration of them that of Barbadoes. This celebrated 
charter, which formed the precedent of all the Proprietary 
charters afterwards issued, was dated 2d of June, 1629.^ 

The next Proprietary charter was that by the same 
monarch in 1630 of Carolina or Carolana to Sir Robert 
Heath. This grant covered all the region lying south 
of Virginia, extending from 31° to 36° of north latitude 
and westward within these parallels across the Continent 

1 Charters and Constitutions — The United States (Poore), 2 vol., 
1888. 

2 Edward's Hist, of West Indies, 1, 323 ; Foyer's Hist. Barbadoes, 
6-11. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 55 

from ocean to ocean. ^ Dr. Daniel Coxe of Ncav Jersey, 
who claimed this patent through various assignments, 
and who wrote in 1721 a description of the territory 
claimed under the grant, observes that " Carolana and 
Carolma are two distinct tho' bordering Provinces, the 
east of Carolana joyning to the west of Carolina.''' The 
former, he states, " was granted by Patent unto Sh' Robert 
Heath in the Beginning of the reign of King Charles I 
Avhich said Sir Robert was the attorney general, and by 
him conveyed to the Earl of Arundel from whom it came 
by mean conveyances unto the present Proprietary. "^ 
This admission by Coxe, who was claiming under the 
Heath grant that the eastern boundary of Carolana was 
the western boundary of Carolina, was induced doubtless 
to avoid conflict with the colonies established under the 
subsequent grants of 1663 and 1665, which covered the 
same territory, and under which the Proprietors had then 
occupied and held for fifty years. The grant to Heath, 
however, distinctly ran to " the ocean on the East." The 
claims to the province of " Carolana " continued to be 
prosecuted, but limited in this way to the country 
west of the settled portion of Carolina, and embracing the 
Mississippi. Upon the issue of the first charter of Caro- 
lina by Charles II the Heath patent was by order of coun- 
cil, August 12, 1663, declared void because of failure to 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 6; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 64. 

2 A Description of the English Province of Carolana., by Daniel Coxe, 
1721. For abstract of title see Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 519. 

Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 70. Dr. Daniel Coxe was physician 
to the queen of Charles II, and also to Queen Anne. He was the ancestor 
of Tench Coxe of Philadelphia, the statesman and economist, sometimes 
called the father of the growth of American cotton. Dr. Coxe was also 
the principal proprietor of West Jersey. "The Southern States," De 
Bows' Review. 



56 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

fulfil its conditions, there having been under it but a 
few feeble and unsuccessful attempts at colonization.^ 
Then followed the grant of the charter of Maryland to 
Lord Baltimore, June 20, 1632 ; ^ and of Maine to Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, April 3, 1639. ^ 

There were no charters granted during the existence of 
the Commonwealth in England. Upon the Restoration, 
Charles II rewarded his supporters, the Earl of Clarendon, 
the Duke -of Albemarle, Lord Craven, Lord Berkeley, 
Lord Ashley, Sir George Carteret, Sir William Berkeley, 
and Sir John Colleton, by a patent dated March 24, 1668, 
granting them the province of Carolina.* The next year 
he issued a patent to his brother, the Duke of York, after- 
wards James II, giving him the province of Maine and all 
the lands and rivers from the west of the Connecticut River 
to the east side of Delaware Bay, i.e. the States of New 
York and New Jersey;^ and immediately dispatched a 
fleet to wrest those lands from the Dutch, who had pos- 
sessed them under the name of the New Netherlands. 
Later, i.e. in 1681, the province of Pennsylvania was 
granted to William Penn, and so named in honor of Ad- 
miral Penn, his father, whose advances of money and 
services were thus requited.^ 

1 Chalmers's Pol. Ann. ; Carroll's Collections,vol. II, 278 ; Hist. Sketches 
of So. Ca. (Rivers), 64. The King and Council declared Heath's charter 
void; but as it had not been legally so adjudged, Coxe's descendants 
obtained a recognition of their rights from the Board of Trade, and 
received from the Crown in 1768, in lieu of their claim to Carolina, 
100,000 acres of land in the interior of New York, See Government of 
the Colony of So. Ca. (Whitney) ; Johns Hopkins University Studies, 
13 series, 1-11, 24. 

2 Charters and Constitutions— The United States (Poore), vol. I, 811. 
^Ihid., 774. 

4 Ibid., vol. II, 1352 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 22. 
^ Charters and Constitutions, vol. I, 783. 
6 Ibid., 1509. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 57 

As Virginia was the first instance of a charter govern- 
ment, so it was the first of a Royal government. The 
charter of the famous London Company having been cle- 
chired forfeited by the Court of King's Bench upon a 
writ of quo warranto in 1624, a Royal government was set 
up in its stead. The Island of Jamaica had been taken 
by the British from the Spaniards during Cromwell's rule. 
Upon the Restoration, Charles II, to conciliate the affec- 
tions of the colonists whose valor had annexed so impor- 
tant an appendage to his dominions, appointed as Governor 
of the island General D'Oyley, to whose exertions the 
possession of Jamaica was chiefly owing. His commission 
was dated 13 February, 1661. By his instructions he was 
to release the island from military subordination, to erect 
courts of judicature, and with the advice of a council, to 
be elected by the inhabitants, to pass laws suitable to the 
exigencies of the colony. ^ 

The establishment of a Royal government in Jamaica 
was hailed as a blessing by the people of that island ; but 
far otherwise was it regarded when, in 1663, such a gov- 
ernment was set up in Barbadoes. As this event was not 
without considerable influence upon the colony of Caro- 
lina, we shall have occasion to relate somewhat in detail 
the circumstances which brought it about. For the pres- 
ent it is sufficient to observe that at the time of the 
founding of the province of Carolina the three existing 
Provincial or Royal governments were those of Virginia, 
Jamaica, and Barbadoes. 

The Proprietary charter of Maryland is usually referred 
to as the model of that of Carolina ; ^ but both of these, 
as well as that of the patent of Charles I to the Earl of 

1 Edwards's Hist, of West Indies, vol. I, 171. 

2 Chalmers's Pol. Ann. ; Carroll, 281 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 79. 



58 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Carlisle for the Caribbee Islands, are based upon that of 
Sir Robert Heath of Carolana ; which in its turn followed, 
but enlarged upon, that of the Earl of Marlborough and 
that of 8ir Walter Raleigh. This last, the patent to 
Raleigh, which was the first of all the charters, we recol- 
lect authorized and empowered Raleigh, his heirs and 
assigns, to govern and rule by such statutes, laws, and 
ordinances as he should devise, provided always that such 
statutes, laws, and ordinances should be as near as con- 
veniently might be agreeable to the laws of England. 
Sir Robert was em]30wered in his government to do like- 
wise, but very important additions and restrictions were 
made to the terms of his grant, and these were followed in 
all subsequent patents. 

"Whereas," declared his Majesty, "our beloved and faithfull 
subject and servant Sir Robert Heath, Knight, our attorney Generall, 
kindled with a certaine laudable and pious desire as well of enlarging 
the Christian religion as our Empire & encreasing the Trade & Com- 
merce of this our kingdom," etc., " we have therefore granted to Sir 
Robert the territory described ; And furthermore the patronages 
and advowsons of all churches which shall happen to be built hereafter 
in the said Region Territory & Isles and limitts by the increase of 
the religion & worship of Christ. Together with all & singular these 
& these soe amply Rights Jurisdictions privileges prerogatives 
Royaltyes libertyes immunityes with Royal rights & franchises 
whatsoever as well by sea as by land within that Region Territory 
Isles & limitts aforesaid To have exercise use & enjoy in like man- 
ner as? any Bishop of Durham within the Bp"^^^ or County Palatine 
of Durham in our kingdome of England ever heretofore had held 
used or enjoyed or of right ought or could have hold use or enjoy. 
And by these presents we make create & constitute the same S"^ Rob- 
ert Heath his heires & assignes true and absolute Lords & Proprietors 
of the Region & Territory aforesaid & all other the premises for us 
our heires & successors saveing alwaies the faith & Allegiance due tq 
us our heires & successors," etc.^ 

1 Colonial Eecords of No. Ca., vol. I, 5. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 59 

The province granted was thus constituted a County 
Palatine with Sir Robert Heath, his heirs and assigns, as 
Lords Proprietors. To understand, therefore, the nature 
of this grant, we must go back to the County Palatine in 
England. They were three of these, — Chester, Durham 
and Lancaster. Counties Palatine are so called, a palatio^^ 
says Blackstone, because the owners thereof, the Earl of 
Chester, the Bishop of Durham, and the Duke of Lancas- 
ter, had in these counties jura i^egalia as fully as the King 
hath in his palace regalem potestatem in omnibus as Brac- 
ton expresses it. They might pardon treasons, murders, 
and felonies, the}^ appointed all judges and justices of the 
peace, all writs and indictments ran in their names as in 
other counties in the King's name, and all offences were 
said to be done against their peace, and not, as in other 
places, contra pacem domini regis. These palatine privi- 
leges were in all probability, observes this author, origi- 
nally granted to the counties of Chester and Durham 
because they bordered upon inimical countries, Wales and 
Scotland, in order that the inhabitants having justice 
administered at home might not be obliged to go out of 
the county and leave it open to the enemy's incursions ; 
and that the owners being encouraged by so large an 
authority might be the more watchful in its defence. ^ 

Of the three, the County of Durham was the only pala- 
tine remaining when King Charles made his grant to Sir 
Robert Heath — and upon that model Avas the proposed 
government of Carolana, It was to be a viceregal one. 
But other important qualifications Avere prescribed. 

1 The term "Palatine," from Comes Palatii^ count of the palace, is a 
title formerly given to some great dignitary of the Royal household. It 
thus became the title of a governor of some local district with the 
authority and privileges of Vice Royalty ; in England the County of 
Diirhnm is a County Palatine. 1 Statutes, 42. 

2 Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 117. 



60 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Raleigh had been empowered to make such statutes, laws, 
and ordinances as he deemed best ; Heath's power Avas 
encumbered with a proviso. His laws must receive the 
assent of the people. He was empowered 

" to forme, make, & enact, & publish . . . what lawes souer may 
concerne the publicke state of the said province or the private profitt 
of all according to the wholesome directions of & with the counsell 
assent ^ approbation of the Freeholders of the same Province or the 
]\Iajor part of them icho when Sf as often as need shall require shall by 
the aforesaid S*" Robert Heath his Ileires ^ Assignes ^ in that forme 
which to him or them shall seem best, be called together to make lawes & 
those to be for all men within the said Province," ect.^ 

To this, however, was added another proviso found also 
in subsequent charters, which enabled the Proprietors 
upon emergencies to dispense with the advice of the 
freemen. 

" And because in the government of soe great a Province sudden 
chances many times happen to which it will be necessary to apply a 
remedy before that the Freeholders of the sayd province can be called 
together to make lawes, neither will it be convenient upon a continued 
title in an emergent occassion to gather together soe great a people 
therefore." Sir Robert and his heirs and assigns it was declared, 
" shall & may have power from time to time to make & constitute 
wholesome and convenient Ordinances within the Province aforesaid 
. . . which Ordinances we will that they be inviolably observed 
within the sayd Province under the paines expressed in them, soe as 
the sayd Ordinances be consonant to Reason & not repugnant nor 
contrary but (as conveniently may be done) consonant to the laws, 
statutes, & rights of our Realme of England as is aforesaid soe alsoe 
that the same Ordinances extend not themselves against the right or 
interest of any person or persons or to distrayne, bind or burden in 
or upon his freehold goods or chattels or to be received anywhere 
than in the same Province or the Isles aforesay'd." ^ 

There Avas also this peculiar provision which was fol- 
lowed in the charters of Maryland and Carolina: — 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca.j vol. I, 8. 

2 Ibid., vol. I, 8, 9. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 61 

" Furthermore least the way to Honours & Dignityes may seem to 
be shutt & altogether barr'd up to men honestly borne & are willing 
to undertake this present expedition & are desirous in soe remote and 
far distant a Region to deserve well of us & of our kingdomes in 
peace & warre for that doe for ourselves our heires & successors give 
full & free power to the forsayd S""- Robert Heath, Knight, his heires 
& assignes to confere favours, graces & honours upon those well deserv- 
ing citizens that inhabit loithin the forsayd jwovince & the same with 
whatever titles & dignityes (provided they be not the same as are 
now used in England) to adorne at his pleasure," ^ etc. 

With these precedents before him, Charles II proceeded 
to reward the friends who had stood by him in his adver- 
sity. It is well to recall who these were. 

The Earl of Clarendon had been his companion and 
counsellor, in exile, and after Cromwell's death had mate- 
rially contributed to the reestablishment of the monarchy. 
His daughter was subsequently married to the Duke of 
York, afterwards James II, and their children Mary and 
Anne became Queens of England. The history of this great 
man is too well known to need any extended notice here. 

George, Duke of Albemarle, Master of the Horse, and 
Captain General of the Forces, was the famous General 
George Monk. No single person deserved more the title 
of the Restorer of the King, than he. His history is also 
well known. 

William, Earl Craven, was an elderly man who had been 
distinguished in love and war thirty years before, who 
had led the forlorn hope at Crentznach with such courage 
that he had been patted on the shoulder by the great 
Gustavus, and who was believed to have won from a 
thousand rivals the heart of the unfortunate Queen of 
Bohemia. 2 He had been elevated to the peerage by 
Charles I, and having afterwards during the civil wars 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. 1, 11. 

2 Macaulay's Hist, of England, IV, 42. 



62 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

zealously and ably espoused the Royal cause, had been, 
upon the Restoration, created Earl.^ For twenty odd 
years more, he Avas to serve the Stuarts and to be last to 
stand by that family. He was to survive all the other 
grantees. 

John, Lord Berkeley, like Craven, had long been in the 
service of the Royal family. He had been knighted in 
1638, by Charles I, and upon the breaking out of the 
rebellion, had been one of those very good officers (as 
Lord Clarendon calls them) who were ordered to form 
{in army in the west. In the King's service he had 
achieved great successes. He had stood so high in the 
estimation of the Queen, that her Majesty had selected 
the city of Exeter under his protection as the birthplace of 
the Princess Henrietta Maria ; and had especially recom- 
mended "• Jack Berkeley " to the favor of her Royal 
husband. He had been emploj^ed in the endeavor to 
negotiate terms for the unfortunate Charles. During the 
Commonwealth, Sir John remained in exile with the 
Royal family. Upon the restoration of the monarchy 
his Lordship was sworn of the Privy Council. ^ 

Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley (after whom the 
Cooper and Ashley rivers have been named), had been 
particularly recommended to Charles II by General 
Monk, as a person well fitted to be one of his council. 
Although regarded as a politician who had espoused the 
cause of monarchy, then of the Parliament, and then of 
monarchy, as it suited his ambition, yet he long retained 
the favor and confidence of the King, and by his distin- 
guished abilities became Chancellor of England, and was 
made Earl of Shaftesbury. He Avas again to forfeit the 
Royal confidence, and to die in exile. He was the con- 
stant friend and patron of the philosopher Locke, to Avhom 
1 Burke's Peerage. ^ Ibid. 



J 



UNDER THE PKOPHIETAEY GOVERNMENT 63 

was committed the framing of the fundamental hiws for 
the government of Carolina. This nobleman was most 
influential in the early policy of Carolina. 

Sir George Carteret had been a naval officer of the 
highest reputation and of great influence. He had 
retired from the navy, and withdrawn with his family 
to Jersey, but returned to the aid of the Royalists, and 
was made a baronet by King Charles, May 9, 1645. He 
was Governor of Jersey when ruin befell the Royal cause, 
and afforded there an asylum to the Prince of Wales, the 
Earl of Clarendon, and other refugees. He afterwards 
defended the island in the most gallant manner against 
the Parliamentarians, and surrendered ultimately only 
upon receiving the command of King Charles II so to do. 
Elizabeth Castle, in the Island of Jersey, was the last 
fortress that lowered the Royal banner. He was also of 
the Privy Council. ^ 

Sir John Colleton had been a captain of foot and a 
most active partisan of royalty in the beginning of the 
civil wars. Receiving from Lord Berkeley a colonel's 
commission to raise a regiment for his army in the west, 
he succeeded in doing so in ten days, and expended for 
the King's service £40,000 besides losing considerably 
more than that sum by sequestration. After the success 
of the parliamentary forces he retired to Barbadoes. There 
he still maintained the Royal cause, and upon the Restora- 
tion, with twelve other gentlemen of that island, among 
them Sir John Yeamans, who with him was to take an 
active part in the early settlement of Carolina, secured 
the dignity of knighthood. ^ 

Sir William Berkeley, brother of Lord Berkeley, was for 
many years the able and loyal Governor of Virginia. He 

1 Clarendon's Hist, of the liebelUon, vol. II, 834. 

2 Burke's Peerage; Toyer's Barbadoes, 76. 



64 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

espoused the cause of Charles I against the Parliament, 
refused to hold office under Cromwell, and induced the 
Colony boldly to adhere to Charles II as their sovereign 
while he was in exile and at a time when the power of 
Parliament was supreme. In remembrance of this the 
Kinof is said to have Avorn at his coronation a robe of 
Virginia silk.^ 

The patent to these favorites of the King began with 
the usual declaration as to the motives of the grant ; viz. 
that the grantees were incited by a laudable and pious 
design of propagating the Christian religion and the 
enlargement of the English empire and dominion. 

To carry out these pious and patriotic views, the gran- 
tees were given " all that territory, or tract of ground 
called Carolina scituate, lying, and being within our do- 
minions of America, extending from the north end of the 
Island called Lucke Island, which lieth in the Southern 
Virginia seas, and within six and thirty degrees of the 
north latitude and to the west as far as the South Seas and 
so southerly as far as the River Matthias which bordereth 
upon the coast of Florida, and within thirty-one degrees 
northern latitude and so west in a direct line as far as 
the South Seas aforesaid." ^ This territory with all that it 
contained, the grantees were " to have, use, and enjoy, 
and in as ample a manner as any Bishop of Durham in 
our kingdom of England ever heretofore held used or 
enjoyed or of right or could, have, use or enjoy." ^ 

The province of Carolina was thus constituted, as its 
predecessor of Carolana had been, a County Palatine, and 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., G4, note ; Cooke's Virginia., Am. Com- 
monwealth Series, 182-192 ; Genesis of the United States (Alexander 
Brown), 327, 328. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 22 ; Colonial Becords of ^o. Ca., vol. I, 
102 ; Charters and Constitutions — llie United States, vol. II, 1382. 

3 Ibid. 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 65 

as Sir Robert Heath had been, the grantees too were con- 
stituted Lords Proprietors. Like him they were author- 
ized to make any hiw " according to their best discretion 
of and with the advice assent and approhatio7i of the Free- 
men of the said Province or of the greater part of them or of 
their delegates or deputies^''' whom for the purpose of enact- 
ing laws the Lords Proprietors shoukl '-^from time to time 
assemhle in such manner and form as to them should seem 
hest,'"'^ This most important provision, common also to 
the charters of the Earl of Carlisle and of Lord Baltimore, 
though subject, as we shall see, to evasion, saved the prov- 
ince of Carolina from the impositions of the absurd Fun- 
damental Constitutions of Locke. Like Sir Robert Heath, 
the grantees under this charter were empowered upon 
sudden occasions Avithout awaiting the assent of the free- 
men to make orders and ordinances for the keeping of 
peace and better government of the people, provided that 
such ordinances should be reasonable and not repugnant 
to the laws of England ; but strange to say, while the 
Carlisle patent forbade any such temporary law to affect 
either the liberty or the property of the citizen without 
the assent of the freemen assembled, and while the Balti- 
more patent went further, and declared that such laws 
must not extend to limit, restrict, or do away with the 
right or interest of any person in Umh^ life, freehold, or 
chattels, the Carolina charter protected neither life, limb, 
nor liberty ; it forbade only that such ordinances should 
extend " to the binding, charging, or taking away of the 
right or interest of any person or persons in their free- 
hold goods or chattels whatsoever." ^ 

1 Statutes of So. Ca.^ vol. I, 24 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca.., vol. I, 
23; Charters and Constitutions (Poore), vol. II, 1384. 

2 Colonial Becords of No. Ca.., vol. I, 25 ; Charters and Constitutions, 
vol. II, 1385 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 25. 



QQ HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Not to encumber these pages with tracing further the 
similarity in the provisions of the three charters, we confine 
ourselves to those of the Carolina patent. It was expressly 
enjoined that the province of Carolina should be of his 
Majesty's allegiance and that all subjects who should be 
transported into the province, and the children born there, 
should be denizens and lieges of the Kingdom of England. 
License was given the Proprietors and the colonists to trade 
with the natives and to transport into the province goods, 
wares, and merchandise, and all things necessary for food 
and clothing without let or hindrance, saving the customs 
and duties due according to the several rates of the places 
from whence the same should be transported. They were 
also licensed to bring into any of his Majesty's dominions 
certain specified articles : silks, wines, currants, raisins, 
capers, wax, oil, and olives, without paying any custom 
import or duty therefor for seven years from the first 
importation of four tons of any of the said goods ; and to 
export therefrom custom free all sorts of tools which should 
be useful or necessary for the planters there. 

The Lords Proprietors were authorized to establish ports 
of entry and to assess and impose customs and subsidies 
for the goods imported. They were authorized to build 
forts, castles, cities, and towns, and to appoint governors, 
magistrates, sheriffs, and other officers, civil and militar}^ ; 
to grant charters of incorporation and erect markets and 
marts and fairs and to hold courts baron. They were given 
power to make war and pursue their enemies ; to exercise 
martial laAV in case of rebellion, tumult, or sedition. It 
was expressly stipulated tliat the inhabitants should not 
be compelled to appear or answer to any suit or plaint in 
any place out of the province other than in England or 
Wales. 

The Proprietors were granted the patronage and advow- 



UNDER THE PROiPRlETARY GOVERNMENT 67 

sons of all churches and chapels which, as the Christian 
religion should increase, might be erected, together with 
the license and power to build and found churches, 
chapels, and oratories, and to cause them to be dedi- 
cated and consecrated according to the ecclesiastical laws 
of England. These powers they were to use and enjoy 
in the same manner as the Bishop of Durham exercised 
his in England. 

The Churcli of England was thus established in the 
province : but as in the state of religious controversy 
which prevailed at the time it was expected that many 
dissenters would seek the new colony if liberty of con- 
science was protected, the charter went on to provide that 
" because it might happen that some of the people of the 
Province could not in their private opinions conform 
to the publick exercise of religion according to the 
liturgy form and ceremonies of the Church of England or 
take and subscribe the oaths and articles made and estab- 
lished in that behalf," the Lords Proprietors should have 
full liberty and authority to grant to such persons " who 
really in their judgments and for conscience sake cannot 
or shall not conform to the said liturgies and ceremonies 
and take and subscribe the oaths and articles . . . such 
indulgencies and dispensations as in their discretion they 
might see fit and reasonable." 

But the feature for Avhich this charter is best known 
is that which follows the charter of Sir Robert Heath, and 
is found also in Lord Baltimore's patent. It declares that 
'''' because many persons horn or inhabiting in the said Prov- 
ince for their deserts and services may expect and be capable 
of marks of honour and favour ivhich in respect of the great 
distance can not be conveniently conferred " by his Majesty, 
it was the Royal pleasure to give to the proprietors full 
power and authority, " to give . . . and confer upo7i such 



68 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the inhabitants of the Provifice as they should think to 
merit the same, such marks of favour and titles of honour 
as they should think fit so as these titles of honour be not 
the same as are enjoyed by or conferred upon any subjects 
of this our Kingdom of England." ^ 

Such was the lirst charter of Carolina. It attempted 
to establish a miniature government like to that of Eng- 
land, with the Lords Proprietors representing the Royal 
authority and possessing the viceregal powers and author- 
ities of a Palatine ; an aristocracy to correspond with that 
of the mother country and a House of Commons to be 
elected by the freemen. 

It happened that just at this time complications growing 
originally out of the claim of the Earl of Marlborough to 
the Island of Barbadoes as antecedent to the Carlisle pat- 
ent, but afterwards becoming involved in controversies fol- 
lowing the civil war, and disasters by hurricanes and other 
causes, culminated in loss to that colony but to the great 
assistance in the settlement of Carolina. The influence 
which this Barbadian element had upon the settlement of 
Carolina renders a brief allusion to the causes of this emi- 
gration interesting, if not necessary, to any historic account 
of its development. 

During the first stages of the civil war in England, 
Barbadoes had been an asylum for both the Royalists and 
the Parliamentarians who souoht to avoid the contest at 
home, and emigration from the mother country to this 
island during the commotions in England Avas very great. 
These refugees planted themselves without the license of 
any one, and the Governor for the time being granted lands 
to all who applied on receiving a gratuity to himself. 
The Royalists at this time formed by far the most consid- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 28 ; Charters and Constitutions (Poore), 
vol. II, 1387 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 29. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 69 

erable part of the people ; but the two parties mutually 
agreed to avoid all political controversy and live together 
on terms of reciprocal friendship and good will. This 
happy condition of things, however, could not last ; the 
fierce strife at home soon extended to the West Indies ; 
Barbadoes became the scene of civil war and was for a time 
reduced by the parliamentary forces. On the reestablish- 
ment of the Royal authority his Majesty, as we have said, 
honored thirteen gentlemen of Barbadoes with the dig- 
nity of baronetage for their loyalty and sufferings during 
the civil war.^ Among these were two whose names are 
associated with the early history of Carolina, — Sir John 
Colleton and Sir John Yeamans.^ Of Sir John Colleton 
we have already spoken. Sir John Yeamans was the 
eldest son and heir of Robert Yeamans, alderman of 
Bristol, who was imprisoned and executed in 1643 by 
order of Nathaniel Fiennes, son of Lord Saye, who had 
been appointed Governor of Bristol by the Parliament. 

But while conferring these empty titles, the King turned 
a deaf ear to the planters who had loyally stood by him in 
the time of his need and whose estates were now called 
in question. The controversy in regard to the conflicting 
claims of the Earls of Marlborough and Carlisle was again 
renewed. In vain the planters pleaded to his Majesty 
that they, his loyal subjects, had repaired to Barbadoes as 
to a desolate place and had by their industry obtained a 
livelihood ; tliat if they should now be left to ransom them- 
selves and compound for tlieir estate, they must leave th^ 
country and the plantations which yielded his Majesty so 
great a revenue. To no such appeals did Charles the 
Second ever listen. Between the several claimants there 
was an opportunity for raising a revenue for himself, and 

1 Lecky's Eighteenth Century, vol. II, 23. 

2 Foyer's Hist, of Barbadoes, 70 ; Ilewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 62. 



70 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

this became the only aim of the King's ministers. A 
permanent and irrevocable revenue of four and a half per 
cent on the produce of the island was levied, to be applied 
towards the satisfaction of the claims arising under the 
Carlisle and Marlborough patents and then to be placed 
at the disposal of the crown. 

The planters of Barbadoes were deeply offended at this 
treatment. Man}^ of them had been obliged to quit their 
native country because of their support of the Royal 
cause ; yet in this settlement they perceived a regard for 
every interest concerned but their own. ^ 

While the Parliamentarians had been in the ascendant, 
they had passed the famous act which laid the foundation 
of the navigation system to which Great Britain is chiefly 
indebted for her opulence and maritime strength, but 
which was to have an inimical effect upon the American 
colonies and a great influence in estranging them from 
the mother country. This act, which prohibited any for- 
eign nation from trading with any of the English planta- 
tions without a license from the Council of State, fell with 
great severity upon the sugar colonies, against which it 
was indeed chiefly aimed, and was regarded as a chastise- 
ment inflicted on them by the Commonwealth for their 
loyalty to Charles. The colonists of the Sugar islands 
were filled with amazement and indignation on finding the 
provisions confirmed upon the restoration of that monarch. 
Cromwell had put an end to their foreign trade, and now 
Charles was taxing them out of their estates. ^lany 
planters determined to leave Barbadoes, and they turned 
to the proposed colony in Carolina. 

On the 10th of June, 1663, Sir John Colleton, then in 
London, addressed a communication to the Duke of Al- 
bemarle, stating that divers people desired to settle and 
plant his Majesty's province of Carolina under the patent 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 71 

granted, but that one Mr. Mariot, steward to the Duke of 
Norfolk, had set up a claim grounded upon the patent to 
Sir Robert Heath. 

This, he says, "will certainly hinder that publique worke 
which is intended by the settlement and planting of Caro- 
lina for the persons that at present designe thither expect 
liberty of conscience and without that w411 not goe w'^^ by 
the patent to S" Robert Heath cannot bee granted them 
and they cannot settle under the patent least the other 
gentlemen shall give them trouble or disturbance — so 
that there is a necessity of the present removall of that 
obstacle which is humblie left to the consideracon of yof 
Grace and the noble persons concern'd."^ 

Upon this, on the 12th, the Privy Council ordered that 
his Majesty's Attorney General should proceed either by 
inquisition or scire facias to revoke all former grants of 
the province ; and that in future a clause should be 
inserted in all grants, that if within a certain number 
of years no settlement was made, the grant should 
become void.^ 

While Sir John Colleton was thus removing the obsta- 
cle presented by the claims under Sir Robert Heath's 
grants. Colonel Modiford, who had been Governor of Bar- 
badoes, and Peter Colleton, were preparing and submit- 
ting proposals for the settlement of a Barbadian colony 
in the province. Without waiting for the acceptance of 
their proposals, they sent out an expedition in the ship 
Adventurer^ Captain Hilton, to explore the coast of Caro- 
lina. The expedition sailed from Spekes Bay, Barbadoes, 
August 10, 1663. On Thursday, 3d September, Hilton 
entered a harbor, " and found that it was the River Jordan, 
and was but four Leagues or thereabouts N-E from Port 
Royal, which by the Spanyards is called aS'^ Ellens ; within 
^ Colonial Eecords of No. Ca., vol. I, 34. 2 Ji,i(2.^ 42, 



72 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

land both Rivers meet in one." This was doubtless the 
Broad River. There the expedition remained some days, 
endeavoring to rescue a party of Englishmen who, they 
learned from the Indians, were held on shore by the 
Spaniards. Failing in this, Hilton sailed to the Cape 
Fear, and after remaining there exploring the country he 
returned to Barbadoes on the 6th of January, 1663-64. 
His Relatioyi of his voyage and discoveries Avas published 
in London in 1664. ^ The Proprietors, however, did not 
accept the proposals as made by Colonel Modiford and 
Peter Colleton, under whose auspices the expedition was 
made, and nothing came of this attempt at a settlement 
of the new province. Modiford turned his attention to 
Jamaica, where he settled with his large fortune, and 
found an ample field for the employment of his capital, 
talents, and industry. ^ 

1 Year Book City of Charleston, 1884 (Courtenay), 227. 

2 Foyer's Hist, of Barbadoes, 68. 



CHAPTER III 

1663-69 

As early as 1660 a company from Massachusetts had 
found their way to the Cape Fear, then known as Charles 
River, and planted themselves on its borders. These 
men were merely adventurers, who came under no 
authority, and claimed under no grant. They made some 
slight examination of the country near the mouth of the 
river only, and determined to occupy it for the purpose 
of rearing cattle. An effort was made to secure the co- 
operation of some of their friends in England in bearing 
the expense, and some individuals residing in London 
were induced on their representation '' to share in the 
enterprise." The larger portion of the company, however, 
was composed of New England men. It is not certainly 
known how long these adventurers remained ; but they 
had abandoned the country before Hilton's arrival, and 
left a writing upon a post to the disparagement of the 
land and to the discouragement of all those that there- 
after should come to settle there. ^ 

The Lords Proprietors in May, 1663, met to devise their 
plans. The first measure adopted was that of a contribu- 
tion of funds in the nature of a joint stock company for the 
transportation of colonists. Their second was the issu- 

1 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. TI, 73 ; Hilton's Voyagp ; Year Book 
Charleston (Courtenay), 1864, 249; A New Voyage to Carolina (Law- 
son, 1709), 73. 

73 



74 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ing of proposals upon the most liberal terms to encour- 
age emigration to their territory. Publicity was given 
to these proposals, not only to obtain colonists under their 
charter, but also to counteract and Avarn the public against 
other proposals made in London by the New England ad- 
venturers, claiming title by occupancy — a singular claim, 
truly, for those who had not only abandoned the lands to 
which they had never had any legal rights, but had taken 
the pains to warn all others of their worthlessness. The 
Proprietors also took care to send to every one in London 
connected with the New England company copies of both 
the proposals purporting to have been made in the name 
of that company and of their own. A cautious reply was 
made by the Ncav Englanders, which neither admitted nor 
denied the title of the Proprietors, but confessed their own 
abandonment of the country. 

It now behooved the Proprietors, under the rule tliey 
themselves had had laid down by the Privy Council, to show 
some effort to settle the great domain granted them, and 
in order " that the King may see that wee sleepe not with 
his grants," ^ they sent a commission to Sir William Berke- 
ley, one of their number, then Governor of Virginia, con- 
stituting him Governor also of "All that Terrytory or tract 
of ground now called the Province of Carolina syctuate 
lyeing, and being within his Majestys Dominion in Amer- 
ica extending from the north end of the Island called 
Lucke Island which lyeth on the Southern Virginia Seas 
and within 36 degrees of Northern Lattitude and to the 
west as far as the south seas aforesaid ; " ^ that is, the terri- 
tory between Virginia and Albemarle Sound, and which 
was by subsequent instruction to Drummond, the succes- 
sor of Berkeley, to contain 1600 square miles — Albemarle 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 55. 

2 Ibid., vol. I, 48. 



UNDEK THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 75 

County. They also determined at this time to lay off an- 
other county, — that of Clarendon; so on the 1st of Novem- 
ber, 1664, Robert Samford (Sandford) was commissioned 
Secretary and Chief Register of tlie County of Clarendon, 
and on the 24th John Vassal was commissioned the Gov- 
ernor General,^ — but its boundaries were not defined. 

Sir John Yeamans had been in negotiation with the 
Proprietors, through his son Major William Yeamans, on 
behalf of himself and some eighty-odd other Barbadians, 
which resulted in the execution of an agreement on the 
7th of January, 1664-65, entitled '' The concession and 
agreements of the Lords Proprietors of the Province of 
Carolina to and with the adventurers of the Island of Bar- 
badoes and their associates of England, New England, the 
Carribbia Islands and Barmothos^ to the Province of Caro- 
lina and all that shall plant there. In order to the settling 
and planting of the countye of Clarendine, the county of 
Albemarle and the county of . . . , which latter is to be 
to the southward and westward of Cape Romania all 
within the Province aforesaid."^ 

These concessions constituted a very elaborate system of 
government for the proposed colony, and in pursuance of 
the agreement Sir John Yeamans was on the 11th of Jan- 
uary commissioned Governor of the " County of Clarendon 
near Cape Faire and of all that tract of ground which 
lyeth southerly as farr as the River St Mathias which bor- 
derth upon coast of Florida within 31 degrees northern lat- 
titude and so west as farr as the South Seas as also all 
Islands and Islets Rivers and Seas within the said bounds, 
and our said Province of Carolina. With power to nomi- 
nate appoynt and take to you 12 able men at most, 6 at 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 72, 73. 

2 Bermuda '• still vexed Bermoothes." The Tempest, 1-2. 

^ Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, Prefatory Notes xiv, 75-92. 



76 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

least to be of your councile or assistance or any even 
number between 6 and 12 unless we have before made 
choyce or shall chuse all or any of them." Yeamans was 
also made Lieutenant General of the county and tract of 
ground aforesaid. ^ 

By a memorandum at the time, it was agreed that al- 
though the County of Clarendon and all the tract of 
ground as far as the River St. Matthias and west as far 
as the South Seas was to be for the present under Sir 
John Yeamans, "yit notwithstanding it is ment and in- 
tended that that part of it which is about to be settled to 
the southward and westward of Cape Romania be a dis- 
tinkt Government from the county of Clarendon, and that 
their be a distinkt deputy Governor for the present and 
that it be called the county of Craven, and as soon as it 
shall be settled by the said Sir John Yeamans or any 
other that there be a distinkt Governor commisionated to 
govern there." ^ 

Some doubts, as we have seen, still lingered in regard 
to the titles under Sir Robert Heath's patent, and it was 
doubtless to settle these, as well as to enlarge the extent 
of the territory in America which England was disposed 
to claim, that a second charter was granted to the same 
noblemen on the 13th of June, 1665. The grant to Sir 
Robert Heath, which had not been formally declared for- 
feited at the time of the first charter of the present Pro- 
prietors in 1663, liad now been so declared by the King in 
council, and it was deemed safest therefore for the pres- 
ent Proprietors to obtain another, dated subsequently to 
that declaration. The limits of the province were now 
enlarged to 29° in the south, instead of to the River St. 
Matthias (St. John's) and 36° 30" on the north, includ- 

^ Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 97. 
2 Ibid., vol. I, 03. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT ?7 

ing all within these parallels from the Atlantic to the 
" South Seas " ^ (Pacific) ; that is, besides the present State 
of South Carolina, the States of North Carolina, Tennessee, 
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
Texas, the Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, and 
the lower part of the State of California ; a region which 
has in a great measure been peopled from the colony 
established under this charter, and governed by the politi- 
cal ideas emanating from the point of settlement at the 
junction of Kiawha and Wando rivers — the city by the 
sea — a region which, it will be observed, is almost coinci- 
dent with the territory of the Confederate States in the 
War of Secession. 

Rivers points out other differences between the charter 
of 1663 and that of 1665. In the first the territory was 
spoken of as one province. In the second, authority was 
given to subdivide it into counties, baronies, and colonies 
with separate and distinct jurisdictions, liberties, and 
privileges. 

There is also some change in the terms of the clause 
requiring the assent of the freemen to the enactment of 
laws. In the first charter it was provided that all laws 
should be made " with the advice assent and approbation 
of the freemen of the said province. ^^'^ In the second it was 

1 1st Statute, 32; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 102. 

2 The term "province" is defined to be "an out country governed by 
a Deputy or Lieutenant" (Jacob's Law Dictionary), and it has been said 
that the term is only properly applied to territories over which Governors 
were appointed by the King ; and that the term "colonies" is properly 
applicable only to those in which the Governor was elected by the inhabi- 
tants. Government of the Colony of So. Ca. (Whitney); Johns Hopkins 
University, 13 series, 1-11, 22. But the terms " province " and " colony " 
are used convertibly throughout the Statutes of the Proprietary Govern- 
ment of South Carolina. More strictly speaking, it was the province of 
Carolina, and the colonies on the Ashley and at Albemarle, and after- 
wards the colonies of North and South Carolina. 



78 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

made to read " by and with the advice assent and appro- 
bation of the freemen of the said province or territory or 
of the freemen of the county harony or colony for which 
such laius or constitutions shall he made or the greater part of 
them.^' The intention of this was no doubt to allow the 
establishment of several colonies in the territory granted, 
but in doing so to secure the assent of the freemen of any 
such separate colony to the particular laws as a prerequi- 
site to their enactment. 

Another modification was in the article in regard to 
religion. In the first charter the Proprietors were given 
power to grant indulgences and dispensations to such 
persons who really in their judgment and for conscience' 
sake could not conform to the liturgy and ceremonies of 
the Church of England. Sir John Colleton in his com- 
munication to the Duke of Albemarle had intimated that 
the adventurers from Barbadoes expected something more 
explicit on this point ; and some modification was noAv 
made, but it was very indefinite, and still left the exten- 
sion of indulgences to the Proprietors. " And because,*' 
said the new charter,^ " it may happen that some of the 
people and inhabitants of the said Province cannot in 
their private opinions conform to the publick exercise of 
religion according to the liturgy form and ceremonies of 
the church of England or take and subscribe the oaths 
and articles made in that behalf, and for that the same 
by reason of the remote distances of those places will as we 
hope be no breach of the unity and conformity established 
in this nation," it therefore granted to the Proprietors 
" full and free licence liberty and authority by such ways 
and means as they shall think fit to give and grant unto 
such person or persons inhabiting and being within the 
said province or territory . . . such indulgences and 
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 40. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 79 

dispensations " as the Proprietors '' shall in their discretion 
think fit and reasonable, and that no person or persons 
unto ivhom such liberty shall he given shall be in any way 
molested punished disquieted or called in question for 
any difference in opinion or practice in matters of religious 
concernment who do not actually disturb the civil peace 
of the province county or colony that they shall make 
their abode in ; but all and every such person or persons," 
that is, such person as the Proprietors should indulge, " may 
from time to time and at all times freely and quietly have 
and enjoy his or their judgments and consciences in mat- 
ters of religion throughout the said province or colony, 
they behaving peaceably and not using this liberty to 
licentiousness nor to the civil injury or outward disturb- 
ance of others." This second charter thus did nothing 
more than grant to the Proprietors the right and power to 
use their own discretion in the matter of religious liberty. 
It of itself granted to no inhabitant indulgences or dispen- 
sations or guaranteed religious liberty. It turned this 
great matter over to the Proprietors, guaranteeing only to 
them the power to act in regard to it. 

Sir John Yeamans, on the 11th of January, 1664-65,^ had 
been commissioned as Governor of the County of Claren- 
don and of all the territory as far as Florida. Under the 
commission a company " of adventurers for Carolina " 
was organized at Barbadoes, the members of which were 
to be entitled to 500 acres for every 1000 pounds of Mus- 
covado sugar contributed. 2 In October following Yea- 

1 Throughout the Proprietary Government, and indeed until 1752, for 
the months of January and February, and to the 24th of March, dates are 
thus given, the alteration in the calendar w^hich formed what is usually 
called the old and the new styles not having been adopted in England 
until 1752, by aid of Parliament of 1751. See note to page 84, Statutes of 
So. Ca., vol. II. 

2 See the form of receipt given for the sugar, and claim for the land. 



80 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mans sailed from Barbadoes with his company in a " Fly 
boate of about 150 Tonns accompayned by a small Friggate 
of his owne and a Sloope purchased by a common purse 
for the service of the Colonyes." ^ These small vessels 
were soon separated at sea by a great storm, but were 
brought together again in the beginning of November 
and cast anchor before the mouth of Charles (Cape Fear) 
lliver, near Cape Fear, in the County of Clarendon. 
Upon entering the river the fly boat went aground and 
was wrecked. No life was lost, but the greater part of 
their provisions, victuals, clothes, and of the arms and 
ammunition furnished by the Lords Proprietors for the 
designed settlement was swept away in the waters. 

The coast of Carolina from Cape Fear to St. Augustine 
was doubtless well known to the Spaniards, and still 
better to the pirates of all nations, who infested it and 
found shelter in its numerous bays and inlets. Its princi- 
pal points were all named by the Spaniards. The first 
point south of Cape Fear was called Cape Romano. The 
bay into which the Kiawha and the Wando emptied was 
St. George's Bay. Then came St. Ellen's Sound and Port 
Royal, the River Jordan, the Savannah, and St. Matthias 
(the St. John's). Between the Indians on the coast and the 
Spaniards in Florida, there was close and more or less 
friendly intercourse. But the coast and country now 
included in the grant to the Proprietors were entirely 
unknown to Sir John Yeamans and his party. Upon 
arriving at Cape Fear, Yeamans's first purpose was there- 
fore the examination and exploration of the country. 
For this purpose his intention was to repair the frigate, 
which, together with the sloop, had got safely into the 

Dalcho's Church Hist., 14, in which Yeamans styles himself Lieutenant 
General and Governor of the Province of Carolina. 
1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 119. 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 8l 

river, and to send her back to Barbadoes while he with 
Sandford, who had been appointed Clerk and Register of 
the new county, and who accompanied the expedition, 
and some other gentlemen of the party who offered to 
join them, proceeded upon a voyage of discovery to the 
southAvard. The great necessities of the colony, however, 
demanded that the sloop should first be sent to Virginia 
for supplies, and Sir John, permitting it to go, returned 
himself to Barbadoes in his frigate. The purpose of an 
exploration for the site of a southern settlement was not, 
however, abandoned. He left Sandford to carry it out, 
directing him to employ for the purpose either the sloop 
upon her return from Virginia, if in a fit condition for 
the purpose, or to hire a vessel of Captain Edward Stan- 
yon, then in the harbor, bound for Barbadoes upon her 
return, whichever should first happen, and for this 
purpose he left also a commission for Sandford putting 
him in command of the expedition. 

The sloop upon her return from Virginia was found 
unfit for the service. Captain Stanyon, in returning 
from Barbadoes, became demented, leaped into the sea, 
and was lost. His little vessel was, however, by a 
miraculous providence brought safely into port, and 
Sandford had now a vessel with which to undertake 
the expedition. Its burden, however, scarce exceeded 
fifteen tons. 

Happily, Sandford has left us a most admirable account 
of the voyage, so clear in its statement that we may follow 
him and his company from point to point as he describes 
in quaint style the country, with its vast expanse of 
green marsh resembling a rich prairie, its broad and 
noble arms of the sea, rivers, and innumerable creeks 
fringed with oak and cedar and myrtle and jasmine — 
all now so familiar to us — as it appeared when first 



82 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

visited by those who proposed to make this new country 
their home.^ 

On the 14th of June, 1666, near six months after the 
date of his commission, Sandford entered on his charge and 
on the 16th left Charles River in the Cape Fear, and sailed 
along the coast. He was accompanied by Captain George 
Cary, Lieutenant Samuel Hardy, Lieutenant Joseph 
Woory, Ensign Henry Brayne, Ensign Richard Abrahall, 
Mr. Thomas Giles, and several others to the number of 
seventeen besides himself. He took with him a small 
shallop of some three tons, belonging to the Lords Pro- 
prietors, in Avhich he placed Ensign Henry Brayne, of some 
experience in sea matters. The shallop parted company 
with Sandford's vessel on the night of the 19tli, it being 
very cloudy and dark. 

On the 22d Sandford made land, and entered a fair 
river, and sailing up about four or five miles he came to 
anchor, when a canoe with two Indians approached. The 
Indians came aboard Sandford's vessel and informed him 
that this was the country of Edistoh, and that the chief 
town or seat of the Cacique was on the western shore 
somewhat lower down towards the sea, from which he 
supposed this to be the same river that Hilton had men- 
tioned as the River Grandy, which he saw from sea, but 
did not enter. Sandford named it Harry Haven, in honor 
of his lieutenant. The next day, the 23d of June, he 
went with his boat into a creek on the east shore about a 
mile up, and landed. Then, according to instructions, 
he took formal possession by the ancient ceremony of 
turf and twig of the whole country from the latitude 
of 36° north to 29° south and west to the South Seas, 
])y the name of the province of Carolina for liis Maj- 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1885, 262; Colonial 
Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 118. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 83 

esty Charles the Second, King of England, and to the use 
of the Proprietors. Sandford does not mention whether 
his landing was upon the eastern or western bank, so that 
it is impossible now to know whether this seisin for the 
King and the Proprietors was taken on Wadmalaw or Sea- 
brook Island ; but doubtless this formal entry into the ter- 
ritory of the new province was made in the North Edisto. 
He explored to some extent on both sides of the creek, 
passed through several fields of maize or Indian corn, and 
following the guidance of a small path was brought to 
some of the Indian habitations. The next day he went a 
few miles up the main river to the North Edisto, and find- 
ing a branch on the east side he put in there to examine 
the land. This he found firm and dry, a flat black mould 
with a scarce discernible mixture of sand founded on marl 
or clay. The land he esteemed very profitable and tillable, 
and some of his company discovered an Indian planted 
field, which they told him "bore as tall Maiz as any." 
He rowed up this creek and, besides the swamps, saw and 
ranged through very spacious tracts of rich oak land, 
though not yet past the oyster banks and frequent heaps 
of shells near the salt water. On his return down the 
river he stopped at the landing-place nearest to the chief 
seat of the Edistohs, so that the Indians might with less 
trouble come aboard to trade. 

While lying there, a captain of the Nations, named 
Shadoo, one whom Hilton had carried to Barbadoes, was 
very earnest that some of the company would go with him 
and lie at night at his town, which he told them was but 
a small distance away. Lieutenant Harvey, Lieutenant 
Woory, Mr. Thomas Giles, and Mr. Henry Woodward 
offering themselves to go, and some Indians remaining on 
board, Sandford permitted their doing so. They returned 
the next morning, much pleased with their entertainment, 



84 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and especially with the richness of the land through which 
they had marched and the delightful situation of the town. 
The Cacique himself, however, had not appeared. His 
state was supplied by a female Avho received the party 
with gladness and courtesy. This induced Sandford to 
go himself, so, taking with him Captain George Cary and 
a file of men, he marched thitlier, followed by a long train 
of Indians, of whom some one or other always presented 
himself to carry Sandford on his shoulders over any of 
the branches, creeks, or damp places. The march tended 
to the southward of the west and consequently led near 
the sea coast, yet, says Sandford, it opened to their view 
so excellent a country both for woodland and meadow as 
gave singular satisfaction to all the comj)any. Having 
entered into the town, the party were conducted into a 
large house of a circular form (their generall house of 
State). Opposite the entrance was a high seat, sufiicient 
for half a dozen persons, on which sat the Cacique him- 
self, with his wife (she who had received the party the 
evening before) on his right hand. The Cacique was 
an old man of large stature. Round the house on each 
side were lower benches filled with more w^omen and 
children. In the centre a constant fire was kept burning 
on a great heap of ashes and surrounded with little low 
benches. Sandford and Cary were placed on the higher 
seat on each side of the Cacique, and presented with 
skins, accompanied with ceremonies of welcome and friend- 
ship. Sandford thus describes the toAvn, which was prob- 
ably somewhere near to the site of the present village 
of Rockville on Wadmalaw Island : — 

"... The Towne is scituate on the side or rather in the skirts of 
a faire forrest in which att severall distances are divers fields of Maiz 
with many little houses straglingly amongst them for the habitations 
of the particular families, On the East side and part of the South 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 85 

it hath a large prospect over meadows very spatious and delightful!. 
Before the Doore of their State-house is a spacious walke rowed with 
trees on both sides tall & full branched not much unlike to Elms 
which serves for the Exercise and recreation of the men who by 
Couple runn after a marble bowle troled out alternately by them- 
selves with six foote staves in their hands which they tosse after the 
bowle in their race, and according to the laying of these staves wine 
or loose the beeds they contend for ; an exercise apj)roveable enough 
in the winter but somewhat too violent (meethought) for that season 
and noon time of the day. From this walke is another lesse aside 
from the house for the children to Sport in." 

After a few hours Sandford returned to his vessel with 
a great troop of Indians following him. The old Cacique 
himself came aboard his vessel and remained there that 
night without any of his people, some scores of whom, 
however, lay in booths on the beach. While he lay there 
Sandford learned that the river went through to another 
more westerly and was passable for his vessel. This in- 
creased his desire of jDassing that way, as he was persuaded 
from Hilton's map that the next river was tlie Jordan. 
So on the 27th of June, with the help of a flood tide, 
though the wind was contrary, he turned up the river, in 
which he found the channel six fathom deep and bold for 
a distance about ten miles from the harbor's mouth, where 
the river contracted between the marshes, but was seldom 
less than five fathom deep. The river being narrow and 
Avinding, no wind would serve long ; so that for the most 
part he was forced to tow through, often against the wind, 
which proved very tedious, the more so as they could only 
proceed by day. So that it was Sunday morning, the 1st 
of July, before they came to the next westerly river and 
by it again to the sea. 

From this description of his voyage it is very clear that 
Sandford passed by Jehossee Island through DaAvhow 
River, from North to South Edisto. He was much puz- 



86 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

zled on reaching the sea to find none of the marks which 
Hilton had indicated for the Jordan ; and an evening 
storm driving him back into the river, he anchored and 
went ashore on the east point, and there he found Shadoo 
and several other Indians who had come by land across 
Edisto Island to see them come down the South Edisto. 
From these he learned that this was not the river in 
which Hilton had been. That Hilton had not known 
of it. The river in which Hilton had been was the next. 
When Sandford asked the name of this river, they an- 
swered him Edistows, and from this he says he learned 
that the Indians assigned names not to the rivers, but to 
the countries and people. 

Amongst the Indians who had thus come to see him 
was one who had traded with the colony at the Cape Fear, 
and Avas known to them by the name of Cacique of the 
country of Kiawha. The Cacique was very urgent that 
Sandford should go to his country, assuring him of a 
broad and deep entrance and promising a large welcome 
and plentiful entertainment and trade. But Sandford 
told him he must first go to Port Royal and that on his 
return he would see his country. The Indian would not, 
however, leave Sandford, but to secure his return must 
needs accompany him to Port Royal as his pilot for that 
river. He sent his companion to give notice to the Chief 
Cacique of the place of Sandford's coming, that he might 
prepare food, and went himself on board of Sandford's 
vessel. 

With the morning light, Sandford weighed and stood 
out to sea with an easy gale at northeast and an ebb tide; 
but, unacquainted with the coast, with which Shadoo him- 
self does not appear to have been better informed, he ran 
upon the shoals, and nearly lost his vessel. From this he 
branded the place with the name of Port Peril. It is 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 87 

the same that was then known to the Spaniards as St. 
Helena Sound. After clearing the sands, he stood out 
to sea, and sailing around St. Helena Island, he came to 
anchor off Hilton Head. Broad River, which had been 
called the Jordan, he named Yeamans Harbor, in honor of 
the Lieutenant General and Governor. Whilst there, he 
espied with great rejoicing the shallop which had been 
parted from them since the 19th of June. St. Helena 
Island he had named Gary Island, in honor of his lieu- 
tenant, and Hilton Head Island, Woory Island. The 
shallop had come out of Yeamans Harbor. Sandford fired 
a gun and ran up his colors to let Brayne know that they 
saw him, but could not get to him for the mud flats. On 
the 3d of July, he luffed into the bay, and steering away 
between Hilton Head and the entrance of Port Royal, 
about midnight came to anchor within Port Royal River 
in seven fathoms of water. 

The next morning Sandford moved opposite to the 
principal Indian town, and anchored before it. He had 
not ridden there long before the Cacique of that country 
himself appeared in a canoe, full of Indians, presenting 
him with skins, and bidding him welcome after their 
manner. Sandford went ashore with the Cacique to see 
the town, which stood in sight of the vessel. This was 
doubtless, from the description, Paris Island between Port 
Royal and Broad River. Sandford found the town, as to 
the forms of building, in every respect like that of Edisto, 
with a plain before the great roundhouse for their bowl- 
ing recreation. At the end of this, there stood a fair 
wooden cross, which the Spaniards had left ; but it was not 
observed that the Indians performed any adoration before 
it. All round the town, for a great space, were fields of 
maize of very large growth. The soil was nothing infe- 
rior to the best he had seen at Edisto ; apparently more 



88 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

loose and light. The trees in the woods were much larger, 
all the ground under them covered with a great variety 
of pasturage. He saw there, besides a great number of 
peaches, some fig-trees very large and fair, both fruit 
and plants, and divers grape vines which, though growing 
without culture in the very throng of weeds and bushes, 
were filled with bunches of grapes, to his great admiration. 
Upon the Avhole, they esteemed the country superior even 
to Edisto. It was all cut up into islands made by the 
intervenings of rivers and creeks, yet of firm good lands, 
excepting what was marsh ; nor were the islands so small, 
many of them containing thousands of acres of rich habi- 
table woodland, whose very banks were washed by river 
or creek, contributing not only to the fertility, but to the 
convenience of portage. 

After a few hours' stay, to view the land about the town, 
he returned to his vessel, and there found Ensign Brayne 
with his shallop, who had come that morning through the 
sound from Yeamans Harbor, at the mouth of which they 
had seen him two days before. He reported that the 
morning Sandford had gone into Edisto he sailed along 
until evening, when he had entered Yeamans Harbor, and 
not finding Sandford there and " guessing " that he might 
be more southerly, he came through Port Royal and ac- 
quainted himself with Wommony, the son of the Cacique, 
who had been to Barbadoes, and with whom he easily pre- 
vailed to bear him company as guide from place to place 
in the several creeks and branches; that under his pro- 
tection he had had an excellent opportunity of viewing 
all that part of the country, which, says Sandford, " he did 
so loudly applaud for land and rivers that his company's 
commendations of Edisto could scarce outnoise him." Sat- 
isfied with Brayne's report, Sandford determined to lose 
no more time there, but to proceed up the main river and 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 89 

see the country, and upon his return to enter a creek on 
the west shore, which Brayne had not explored; which he 
was the more desirous to do because the Indians reported 
that it led to a great southern river which pierced far 
into the country and he supposed might be the French- 
man 8 River May or the Spaniard' s St. Matthias. With 
the flood tide and a favorable wind he sailed up the river 
in the shallop nearly thirty miles as he estimated it, pass- 
ing where it divides itself into two principal branches, the 
westernmost of which he went up and landed. From this 
statement it appears that it was Coosawhatchie that he 
ascended. He found the ground rising and crossed sev- 
eral fine falls and one brook of sweet water, which ran 
murmuring between two hills. He was still more pleased 
with the country. The land here, he says, was such as 
made them all conclude not only a possibility that Edisto 
might be, but a certainty that it was, exceeded by the 
country of Port Royal. Tired with his march through a 
rank growth of vines, bushes, and grass, which fettered 
his legs and proclaimed the richness of the soil, Sandford 
returned to the boat and fell down with the ebb towards 
his vessel, passing divers fair creeks in each side, which 
time did not allow him to enter. Upon returning to his 
vessel, he then crossed the river into the western creek 
he had mentioned, which, after three or four miles, opened 
into a great sound full of islands. This was, without 
doubt, Calibouge Sound. He describes it as emptying into 
the sea by two or three outlets. He spent two days ex- 
ploring the islands around, finding them of as good firm 
land as any he liad seen, and better timbered with live- 
oak, cedar, and bay trees. He concluded from what he saw 
that on this sound alone habitation for thousands of people 
might be found, with conveniences for their stock of all 
kinds. In fine, he could see nothing here to be wished 



90 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for but a good store of English inhabitants. He gave to 
the sound his own name, but it has not retained it. 

Returning to his vessel, on the 7th of July Sandford 
took in some fresh water, proposing that night to leave 
Port Royal and return homeward, the discovery he had 
made exceeding all his own and he was confident would 
answer all other expectations. He purposed also to spend 
some days in viewing the country of Kiawha, the Indian 
of that nation remaining still with him for the purpose 
of guiding him thither. 

A little before night the Cacique of Port Royal came 
aboard, bringing with him his sister's son. He inquired 
of Sandford when he would return, and pointing to the 
moon asked whether he would come within three times of 
her completing her orb. Sandford told him no ; but in 
ten months. He seemed troubled at the length of time 
and begged him to come back in five. Sandford insisted 
upon the first number he had given. This being settled, 
the Cacique gave Sandford the young fellow to take with 
him, telling him he must clothe him and bring him back 
when he returned. Then he asked Sandford when he 
would sail, and when informed that he would do so that 
night, he importuned him to stay till the next day, that 
he might prepare him some venison. 

Sandford was much pleased with this adventure and 
with the offer of the Cacique to let his nephew go with 
him, he leaving an Englishman in his room, for the 
mutual learning of their language. This he could do, 
for one of his company, Mr. Henry Woodward, a surgeon, 
had proposed to stay with the Indians for the purpose. 
Sandford determined, therefore, to wait until the next 
morning, to see if the Indians would remain constant to 
their purpose. Then taking Woodward and the young 
man with him, in the presence of all the Indians of the 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 91 

place and of the fellow's relations, he asked if they ap- 
proved of his going with him. They all with one voice 
consented. He then delivered Woodward to the Cacique 
in the sight and hearing of the whole town, telling them 
that when he returned he would require him at their 
hands. They received Woodward with expressions of 
great joy and thankfulness. The Cacique placed him by 
himself on the throne and then led him forth and showed 
him a large field of maize, which he told him should be 
his ; then brought him the sister of the young man who 
was going with Sandford, to tend and dress his victuals 
and to take care of him so that her brother might be 
better used by the white men. Sandford, after staying 
a while, being wondrous civilly treated after the manner 
of the Indians, and giving Woodward formal possession 
of the whole country to hold for the Lords Proprietors, 
returned aboard and immediately weighed anchor iind 
set sail. 

The morning of the 10th of July Sandford found himself 
before the river that led into the country of Kiawha in 
the present Charleston harbor, but the Indian of the place, 
who had remained with him all the while solely for the 
purpose of piloting him into the harbor, mistook the 
entrance, and Sandford under his direction had stood away 
some two leagues before the pilot saw his mistake. It 
was now too late, for the wind was so that he could not 
fetch the river again and even if the weather had been fair 
could not enter it before night; but the appearance of 
the heavens forbade his lying that night upon the coast. 
The river he described as lying between Harry Haven 
(Edisto) and Cape St. Romana, and found seven or eight 
fathoms of water very near the shore and not the least ap- 
pearance of shoals or dangers in any part of it. It showed 
a very fair large opening, clear of any flats barring the 



92 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

entrance — only before the eastern point he saw a beach, 
but which did not extend far ont. He persuaded himself 
that it led to an excellent country, both from the com- 
mendation the Indian gave it and from what he had seen 
at Edisto. Wherefore, in hopes that it might prove worthy 
the dignity, he called the river Ashley, from the Right 
Hon. Lord Ashle}^ and to take away, he says, every 
vestige of foreign title, he blotted out the name of St. 
Romano and called the cape. Cape Carteret, in honor of 
Sir George Carteret, a Proprietor of Carolina. 

On the 12th of July, about noon, Sandford and his 
company entered Charles River, the Cape Fear, and landed, 
to the great rejoicing of their friends, who received not, 
he says, their persons more gratefully than the favorable 
report they brought Avith them of the country they had 
seen and examined, in which they found ample room for 
many thousands secured from any danger of massacre 
with such accommodation, to boot, as scarce any place can 
parallel, in a clime perfectly temperate, and where the soil 
cannot fail to yield so great a variety of production as 
will give an absolute self -sustenance to the place without 
foreign dependence and also furnish a trade to the king- 
dom of England as great as that she has with all her 
neighbors, " and," he concluded, " under our Sovereign 
Lord the King Avithin his owne Dominions and the Lands 
possessed by his Naturall English subjects universall Mon- 
arch of tlie Traffique and comodity of the Avhole world." 

Chalmers in his Political Annals ^ asserts that Sir John 
Yeamans remained Avitli the Barbadian colony on the 
Cape Fear and ruled them Avith the affection of a father, 
rather than with the authority of a Governor, and thus 
insured a seven years' peace to the attempted colony, Avhich 
was only disturbed by the selfishness of indiAdduals ; and 

1 Carroll's Coll., 289. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 93 

in this story lie has been followed by other historians thus 
misled by him.^ But Saunders, in his prefatory note to 
the first volume of the colonial records of North Caro- 
lina, points out the inaccuracy of this statement. Sir John, 
as we have seen, arrived there with his small colony in 
October, 1665, but abandoned them and returned immedi- 
ately to Barbadoes ; where he was a member of the King's 
Council, taking an active part in the affairs of the island 
during the years of his supposed benign rule at Cape 
Fear. 

The Barbadian settlements on the Cape Fear were, in 
fact, broken up in the summer or early fall of 1667 ; the 
colonists not coming to South Carolina, as stated by Chal- 
mers, but going, some up to the Albemarle settlement 
and some to Nansemond County in part, and in part to 
Boston.^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of No. Ca. (Rivers), 71. 

2 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 148-151, 157-150, 177-208. 



CHAPTER IV 

In the early part of 1669 Lord Ashley, not yet the 
Earl of Shaftesbury, assumed a leading part among the 
Proprietors, and their previous indefinite policy in regard 
to the colonies was abandoned under his influence for a 
determined course. His first step was to prepare and 
formulate a plan of government for the great province 
they were to found. For this purpose he engaged the 
assistance of his friend, the celebrated philosopher John 
Locke, who was then living with him at Exeter House, 
his Lordship's London residence as his private secretary. 
The result of their collaboration was the production of 
the famous " Fundamental Constitutions " drawn by Locke 
in March of that year, and which, with some modifications, 
were solemnly adopted by the Proprietors in the July 
following. 

This most extraordinary scheme of forming an aristo- 
cratic government in a colony of adventurers, in the wild 
woods, among savages and wild beasts began with this 
formal recital : — 

" Our Soveregn Lord the King having out of his roj^al grace and 
bounty granted unto us the Province of CaroHna with all the royalties, 
properties, jurisdictions and privileges of a County Palatine, as large 
and ample as the County Palatine of Durham with other great Privi- 
ledges for the better settlement of the government of the said place, 
and establishing the interest of the Lords Proprietors with equality, 
and without confusion ; and that the government of the Province may 
be made most agreeable to the Monarchy under which M^e live and of 

94 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERKMENT 95 

which this Province is a part, and that we may avoid erecting a numerous 
democracy ; we the Lords Proprietors of the Province aforesaid have 
agreed to the following form of governments to be perpetually estab- 
lished amongst us, and unto which we do oblige ourselves, our heirs 
and successors in the most binding ways that can be devised." ^ 

The charter constituted the province a County Palatine. 
The first provision necessary therefore was to determine 
who should be the Palatine. The first clause of the con- 
stitution accordingly provided that the eldest of the Lords 
Proprietors should be the Palatine ; and upon his decease 
the eldest of the seven surviving Proprietors should always 
succeed him. Then seven other chief officers were pro- 
vided, viz. an Admiral, Chamberlain, Chancellor, Constable, 
Chief Justice, High Steward, and Treasurer, the places of 
which should be enjoyed by none, but the Lords Proprie- 
tors to be assigned at first by lot, and upon the vacancy of 
any one of these seven great offices by death or otherwise 
the oldest Proprietor should have his choice of such place. 

Seizing upon the clause in the charter which we have 
traced from that of Sir Robert Heath, which empowered 
the Proprietors to confer marks of favor and titles of 
honor upon such of the inhabitants of the said province as 
they should think fit, and as this instrument expressed it, 
in order that the government might be made most agree- 
able to monarchy and avoid erecting a numerous democ- 
racy, the whole province was to be divided into counties ; 
each county into eight seigniories, eight baronies, and four 
precincts ; each precinct into six colonies. These terri- 
torial divisions were made for the support of the proposed 
aristocracy, and for this purpose it was provided, 

"4 Each signory, barony, and colony shall consist of twelve thou- 
sand acres; the eight signories being the share of the eight proprietors, 
and the eight baronies of the nobility ; both which shares being each 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 43 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. 1, 157. 



96 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of them one fifth of the whole are to be perpetually annexed, the one 
to the proprietors, and the other to the hereditary nobility ; leaving 
the colonies, being three fifths among the people; so that in setting 
out and planting the lands, the balance of the government may be 
preserved." 

As each seigniory, barony, and colony contained 12,000 
acres, each county was made to contain 480,000 acres, or 
750 square miles. Of this land the eight Proprietors 
would have 96,000 acres ; and as there were t\ be as 
many Landgraves as counties, and twice as many Caciques, 
each Landgrave's share was appointed to be four baronies, 
or 48,000 acres, and each Cacique's share two baronies, or 
24,000 acres. There were left three-fifths of each county, 
or 288,000 acres, for the people. ^ 

Until the year 1701 the Proprietors were to be allowed 
to dispose each of his proprietorship, and of his seigniories 
and powers ; but after that time no Proprietor was to be 
allowed to alienate his proprietorship with its seigniories, 
baronies, and privileges, but for a term of three lives or 
twenty-one years ; and that only to the extent of two- 
thirds, the remaining third to be always in demesne, i.e. 
in the Proprietor's own actual possession, and not under 
lease to tenants. The proprietorship, with its lands and 
privileges, was to descend to the heirs male, and for want 
of such heirs, to a Landgrave or Cacique of Carolina, who 
was descended from the next heirs female of the Proprie- 
tor ; if none, to the next heir general ; and for want of 
any such heirs the remaining seven Proprietors were au- 
thorized to choose a Landgrave to succeed to the deceased 
Proprietor; and it was required that whoever succeeded 
a Proprietor, either by inheritance or choice, should take 
the name and arms of the Proprietor whom he succeeded, 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 83. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 97 

which should thenceforth be the name and arms of his 
family and their posterity. 

Besides the Proprietors, the nobility was to consist of 
Landgraves and Caciques. These terms were chosen be- 
cause by the provision of the charter it was required that 
the title was to be unlike those of England. The title 
Landgrave was borrowed from the old German courts ; 
and that of " Casique " or " Cacique " from the style of 
the Indian chiefs of America. There were to be as many 
Landgraves as there were counties, and twice as many 
Caciques, and no more. These were to constitute the 
hereditary nobility of the province, and by right of their 
dignity to be members of Parliament. Each Landgrave 
was to have four baronies, and each Cacique two baronies 
hereditarily and unalterably annexed to and settled upon 
the dignity. The same rules of alienation and descent as 
to the lands and dignities of the Landgraves and Caciques 
were laid down as were prescribed for the proprietorship. 

Besides the seigniory of the Proprietor, the barony of the 
nobility, and the colony or precinct of the commons, an- 
other subdivision was allowed, — that of the manor, which 
was to consist of not less than 3000 acres, and not above 
12,000 in one entire piece, and in one colony; the mere 
possession by one, however, of such a tract did not consti- 
tute it a manor unless it was so ordered by a Palatine 
Court. A lord of a manor within his own manor was to 
have all the powers, jurisdictions, and privileges which 
pertained to a Landgrave or Cacique in his barony. 

It was provided that " In every signory, barony and 
manor all the leet-men shall be under the jurisdiction of 
the respective lords of the said signory, barony or manor 
without appeal from him." This provision was a revival 
and adaptation of the ancient system of the hundred, under 
which in England a court-leet was held once a year Avithin 

H 



98 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

each particular hundred, lordship, or manor, and to which 
court all the freeholders within the precinct above the 
age of twelve and under sixty, excepting peers, clerks (^i.e. 
clergy), women, and aliens, whether masters or servants, 
owed their personal suit and attendance, and were to be 
sworn as to their fealty and allegiance. The court-leet 
in England was charged with the preservation of the 
peace, and had jurisdiction over small offenders against 
the public good.^ 

But while new and oppressive provisions were imposed 
by these constitutions, such as that no leet-man or leet- 
woman should have liberty to go off from the land of his 
or her lord, and live anywhere else without leave obtained 
from the said lord under hand and seal ; and while the 
existence of the court-leet was at least impliedly recog- 
nized in the provisions that the lord of the seigniory, 
barony, or manor should have jurisdiction without appeal 
over his leet-men, and prescribing that no one should be 
capable of having a court-leet but a Proprietor, Landgrave, 
Cacique, or lord of manor, no provision was made for the 
holding of such courts, but, on the contrary, their organi- 
zation and jurisdiction, as they prevailed in England, were 
given to County and Precinct courts. 

Who were to be leet-men was not declared save in 
the clause "whosoever shall voluntarily enter himself a 
leet-man in the registr}^ of the County Court shall be a 
leet-man." The only inducement held out for one thus 
voluntarily to put himself within the absolute control of 
his lord was that the lord should, " upon the marriage of 
a leet-man or leet-woman, give them ten acres of land for 
their lives, they paying to him therefor not more than one- 
eighth part of all the yearly produce and growth of the 
said ten acres." Could the framers of this instrument, 
1 Blackstone's Com., vol. IV, 273. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 99 

philosophers or statesmen, suppose that for the rental of 
those few acres upon marriage, freemen would have thus 
enslaved themselves ? 

Eight Supreme Courts were provided ; the jurisdiction 
of these courts was legislative as well as judicial. The 
first was the Palatine Court, consisting of the Palatine 
and the other seven Proprietors. This court with its vice- 
regal power corresponded to the King in the monarchy of 
England, but with even greater relative power in its lim- 
ited sphere. It was the source of all law and the final 
arbiter of justice. The other seven courts each consisted 
of one of the other seven great officers and six counsellors. 

To the Chancellor's Court belonged all matters of State 
and treaties with the neighboring Indians, all invasions of 
the law of liberty of conscience, and all invasions of the 
public peace upon pretence of religion, as also the license 
and control of printing. 

The Chief Justice's Court had jurisdiction of all ap- 
peals both civil and criminal, except such as fell under 
the jurisdiction and cognizance of any other of the Pro- 
prietors' courts. 

The Constable's Court had the order and determination 
of all military affairs by land, and of all land forces, arms, 
ammunition, and whatever belonged unto war. 

The Admiral's Court had the powers of a court of 
admiralty, with power to appoint judges in port towns to 
try cases belonging to the law-merchants as should be most 
convenient for trade. 

The Treasurer's Court was charged with the care of all 
matters that concern the public revenue and treasury. 

The High Steward's Court had the care of all foreign 
and domestic trade, manufactures, public buildings, Avork- 
houses, highways, passages by water above the flood tide, 
drains, sewers, and banks against inundations, bridges, 



iOO HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

posts, carriers, fairs, markets, corruption or infection of 
the air or water, and of all things in order to the public 
commerce and health, the surveying of lands, and the 
appointing places for towns. 

The Chamberlain's Court had the care of all ceremonies, 
precedency, heraldry, reception of public messengers, pedi- 
grees, the registration of births, burials, and marriages, 
legitimation, and all cases concerning matrimony ; and 
had power also to regulate all fashions, habits, badges, 
games, and sports. 

There was to be a Grand Council consisting of the 
Palatine, seven Proprietors, and the forty-two counsel- 
lors of the several Proprietors' courts, which should have 
power to determine any controversy that might arise be- 
tween any of the Proprietors' courts about their respective 
jurisdictions. This body Avas also to prepare all matters 
to be proposed in Parliament, and no matter whatsoever 
was allowed to be introduced in Parliament which had 
not first been considered by it ; after which,, having been 
read three several days in Parliament, it was by majority 
of votes passed or rejected.^ The Grand Council was to 
meet the first Tuesday in every month. The quorum was 
but thirteen, whereof a Proprietor or his deputy should 
be always one. The Palatine or any of the Lords Pro- 
prietors were empowered under their hands and seals to 
be registered in the Grand Council, to make a deputy 
who should have the same power to all intents and pur- 

1 The precedent for this provision was probably found in that of 
Poyning's law in regard to Ireland, of 1494 (the great bone of contention 
in the later days of Flood and Grattan), under which no matter could be 
moved or considered in any Parliament of Ireland until it had been con- 
sidered, approved, and certified under the great seal of England. By 
which means nothing was left to an Irish parliament but a power of pass- 
ing or rejecting such measures as were proposed to them. Blackstone's 
Com., vol. I, Intro., § 4 ; Green's Hist, of the English People, vol. II, 73. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 101 

poses as he who deputed hmi except the confirming acts 
of Parliament and nominating and choosing Landgraves 
and Caciques. The eldest of the Lords Proprietors who 
should be personally in Carolina should, of course, be tlie 
Palatine deputy. 

County and Precinct courts were provided, as before 
intimated, for the trial of small causes, civil and criminal. 
For treason, murder, and all other offences punishable by 
death, a commission twice a year at least was to be granted 
to one or more members of the Grand Council Avho should 
come as itinerant judges to the several counties, and with 
the sheriff and four justices hold assizes to judge all such 
cases. From the Court of Assizes an appeal was allowed 
to the respective Proprietors' court, but only upon the 
payment of .£50 sterling to the Lords Proprietors' use. 
These courts of assize were to be held quarterly, not 
exceeding twenty-one days at any one time. 

None but freeholders could be jurymen. Every jury 
was to consist of twelve men, but it was not necessary 
that all should agree ; the verdict was to be rendered ac- 
cording to the consent of the majority. There was then 
a curious provision taken, doubtless by Locke, from the 
Cincian law of Rome, which declared it to be a base and 
vile thing to plead for money or reward, and forbade that 
any, except a near kinsman, should be permitted to plead 
another's cause until he had taken an oath in open court 
that he had not directly or indirectly bargained with the 
party whose cause he was going to plead, for money or 
other reward. 

The object of this provision, it has been observed, is 
manifest. It Avas to make of pleading before the courts 
of justice a patrician privilege, and thus secure to the 
governing class tlie immense influence which attaches to 
the administration of the law. And the result would 



102 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

have been to have made of the profession a class within a 
class, invested even with higher power and more extensive 
influence than the body to which it belonged. ^ 

There was to be a biennial Parliament, to consist of 
the Proprietors, or their deputies, the Landgraves and 
Caciques, and one freeholder out of every precinct, to be 
chosen by the freeholders. Like the ancient Scotch Par- 
liament, all were to sit together in one room and each 
member to have one vote. It is evident that the repre- 
sentation of the commonalty would have but little influ- 
ence in such a body, by the very constitution of which 
they were in a hopeless minority; but the provision that 
no business should be allowed to be proposed until it was 
debated in the Grand Council, whose duty it was, like the 
Lords of Articles in the Scotch constitution, to prepare 
bills for Parliament, reduced them still more to the posi- 
tion of mere witnesses to the action of others whose pro- 
ceedings they could not control. 

The freeholders of the respective precincts were to meet 
to choose Parliament men every two years at the same 
place unless the steward of the precinct, upon proper 
notice, appointed some other place. The manner of these 
elections was not prescribed ; but without doubt they were 
intended to be by poll, as it was especially provided that 
all elections in the Parliament itself, in the several cham- 
bers of the Parliament, and in the Grand Council should 
be by balloting. As far as is known, however, no election 
ever took place in South Carolina except by ballot. 

To avoid a multiplicity of laws which it was said 
by degrees always change the right foundations of the 
original government, all acts of Parliament, it Avas pro- 
vided, should, at the end of a hundred years after their 

1 Oration of William Henry Trescot, before Historical Society, Coll. 
Hist, of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 28. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 103 

enactment, ''cease and determine," i.e. come to an end of 
themselves without repeal. And since, continued these 
wise lawmakers, multiplicity of comments, as well as of 
laws, have great inconveniences, and serve only to obscure 
and perplex, all manner of comments and expositions on 
any part of these Fundamental Constitutions or upon any 
part of the common or statute laws of Carolina are abso- 
lutely prohibited. 

A registry was provided in every seigniory, barony, and 
colony, wherein were to be recorded all births, marriages, 
and deaths. The time of every one's age that is born in 
Carolina, it was declared, should be reckoned from the 
day that his birth is entered in the registry^ and not before. 
No marriage was lawful until both parties owned it be- 
fore the Register. No administration upon the goods of a 
deceased person was allowed until his death was regis- 
tered. Neglect to register a birth or death subjected the 
person in whose house or ground the birth or death took 
place to a fine of one shilling per week. The births, mar- 
riages, and deaths of the Lords Proprietors, Landgraves, 
and Caciques were to be registered in the Chamberlain's 
Court. 

All incorporated towns were to be governed by a mayor, 
twelve aldermen, and twenty-four of the common council ; 
the common council to be chosen by the householders of 
the town, the aldermen to be chosen out of the common 
council, and the mayor out of the aldermen by the Pala- 
tine's Court. 

The provisions in regard to religion were also remark- 
able. It was especially provided that " no man shall be 
permitted to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any 
estate or habitation within that doth not acknowledge a 
Grod, and that God is publicly and solemnly to be wor- 
shiped." But as it was expected that those who would 



104 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

plant themselves in the new colony would unavoidably be 
of different opinions concerning religious matters, the next 
article went on to provide that " any seven or more persons 
agreeing in any religion should constitute a profe'ssion 
to which they should give some name." The terms of 
admittance and communion with any such church or pro- 
fession were to be written in a book, and subscribed by 
all the members, and the book be kept by the public 
Register. These terms were to comprise three, with- 
out which no agreement or assembly of men should be 
accounted a church or profession within the rules. 
These were : — 

"1st. That there is a God. 

2d. That God is piiblickly to be worshiped. 

3d. That it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto 
called to bear witness to the truth, and that every church or profession 
shall in these terms of communion set down the eternal way whereby 
they witness a truth as in the presence of God whether it be by laying 
hands on or kissing the bible, as in the church of England or by hold- 
ing up the hand, or any other sensible way." 

In the copy of these constitutions to be found in the 

Statutes of South Carolina there appears the following : — 

" 96' (As the country comes to be sufficiently planted, and distrib- 
uted into fit divisions, it shall belong to the Parliament to take care 
for the building of churches and the public maintenance of divines, 
to be employed in the exercise of religion, according to the Church 
of England; which being the only true and orthodox, and the national 
religion of all the King's dominions is so also of Carolina, and therefore 
it alone shall be allowed to receive public maintenance by grant of 
Parliament)." 

In a note to these constitutions appended to Locke's 
works, it is said that this article was not drawn up by 
him, but inserted by some of the chief of the Proprietors 
against his judgment, as Locke himself informed his 
friends to whom he presented a copy of them.^ But 
1 Locke's works (4th ed., MDCCLIX), vol. Ill, 376. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 105 

Anderson, in his history of the colonial church, observes 
that it is difficult to understand the grounds on which 
such an objection, if made, could have been rested. For 
if it be true, it w^as nothing else than objecting to a 
corollary inevitably deduced from the terms of the only 
instrument which gave to the Proprietors or to any one 
interested in the welfare of Carolina the right to legislate 
therefor. He points out also that the statement does not 
altogether agree with another made in a history of Locke's 
life prefixed to his works, i.e. that it was inserted not by 
the influence of any of the Proprietors, but because some 
of the clergy, jealous of the other liberal provisions in 
regard to religion contained in the other clauses of the 
constitution, expressed their disapprobation and procured 
the insertion of this article. The point of this argument 
is that when Locke undertook to draw this body of laws, 
he necessarily consented and undertook to draw them so 
as to conform to the requirements of the Royal charter, — 
the authority upon which they must ultimately rest, and by 
which they must be controlled, — and that as that charter 
of itself established the church, the constitution to be pre- 
pared by him must necessarily have provided for carrying 
out that purpose.^ 

A manuscript copy of the constitution, still to be found 
in the Charleston Library, which tradition asserts to be 
in the handwriting of the celebrated draftsman, Locke 
himself, bearing date the 21st of July, 1669, does not 
contain this clause. The historian Rivers does not, how- 
ever, believe this manuscript to be Locke's, but considers 
it a transcript sent out with Sayle.^ However interesting 

1 Anderson's History of the Colonial Churchy vol. I, 321-823. 

2 In this Mr. Rivers is corroborated by Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, assist- 
ant keeper of the public records in the State paper office, London, the 
best authority upon the subject, who writes, December, 1875: "After 



106 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

this question may be historically, involving as it does the 
existence of the very paper upon which the province of 
Carolina was founded, and its preservation upon the spot 
on which it was first read and attempted to be put in 
force, now two hundred and twenty -seven years ago, the 
presence or absence of this clause in the constitution was 
not a matter affecting the government of the colony, inas- 
much as its purpose was already carried out in the Royal 
charter itself by which the Church of England Avas estab- 
lished as the church of the province. It is curious to ob- 
serve, however, as illustrating the early disregard by the 
Proprietors of the terms of their charter which became 
habitual, that the reason they allege for the establishment 
of the church is not that it is so already prescribed in 
that instrument as one of the conditions of their title, but 
because it is the only true and orthodox and national 
religion, and is, therefore, alone to receive public main- 
tenance. The fact is that the liberality of the constitutions 
themselves, for which Locke has been praised, was en- 
joined by the Royal charter which prohibited the inter- 
]f^ \ ference with or punishment of any for difference in opinion 
or practice in matters of religious concurment which did 
not disturb the civil peace of the province. 

Passing from these provisions to secure liberty of con- 
science, and others to protect the native Indian and to 
give him an opportunity to learn for himself the reason- 
ableness of the Christian religion and the peaceableness 
and unoffensiveness of its professors by their good usage 
and persuasion, — precepts which all European colonists 
habitually disregarded and atrociously violated, — these 

comparing very carefully the Charleston fac-simile herewith returned, 
with Shaftesbury MS. and with many other papers in Locke's handwrit- 
ing, I am of opinion that it is 7iot in Locke's handwriting, but that it 
is a cotemporary copy." MS. letter, Charleston Library. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 107 

constitutions drawn by him who, in a subsequent treatise 
on government, approves the doctrine that slavery was 
but a state of warfare continued,^ proceed to enjoin that 
" every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute poAver and 
authority over his negro slave of what opinion or religion 
soever." The full significance of this provision we shall 
have occasion hereafter to disclose when we come to treat 
of the institution of African slavery in the colony. ^ For 
the present it is enough to observe that the existence of 
the institution as a rightful and legal one was thus recog- 
nized, and provision made in advance for its introduction 
into the province. 

In order firmly to establish and maintain these Funda- 
mental Constitutions, it was provided that a true copy of 
them should be kept in a great book, by the register of 
every precinct, and that no person of what degree or 
condition soever above seventeen years old should have 
any estate or possession in Carolina, or protection or 
benefit of the law, who did not subscribe a pledge with his 
utmost power to defend and maintain them. 

It is remarkable that in preparing and adopting these 
Fundamental Constitutions, the Proprietors were oblivi- 
ous of the essential fact that under the Royal charter, 
by which alone they could prescribe constitutions and 
laws for the province which had been granted them, it had 
been expressly prescribed that such laws could only be 
enacted ''by and with the advice assent and approbation 
of the Freemen of the said Province or of their delesfates 
or deputies." Was it likely that such freemen would ever 
consent to the establishment of a form of government 

1 Locke's works, vol. II, 173. 

2 See "Slavery in the Province of Sonth Carolina, 1670-1770," by 
Edward McCrady, Annual lieport of the American Historical Associa- 
tion, 1896, 652-664. 



108 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the chief scope and object of which was to transfer 
the rights which had been secured them by the Royal 
charter to an aristocracy over whom they could have no 
control ? Such a doubt seems never to have occurred to 
the Proprietors. Still more strange does this appear 
when we consider that these Proprietors were seeking to 
induce emigrants to settle in their new province rather 
than in the older colonies, which were guaranteeing to all 
such liberty and equality. We must remember, however, 
that it was about this time that Sir William Berkeley, one 
of their body, then in America, as Governor of Virginia, 
on the eve of Bacon's Rebellion, concluded a report upon 
that colony with the famous declaration : " I thank God 
that there are no free schools, no printing, and I hope we 
shall not have these hundred years; for learning has 
brought disobedience into the world, and printing has 
divulged them and libels against the best governments. "^ 
These constitutions doubtless expressed the reactionary 
sentiment of the Restoration. It will be made to appear 
in the course of this work that South Carolina was fore- 
most in her efforts to establish free schools and to provide 
for the education of her children, the poor as well as the 
rich, yet in this the first body of laws proposed for her 
government by absentee Lords, though devised and framed 
by a student and a philosopher, there was no mention, 
even, of a school. Public schools Avere not in accordance 
with the spirit of the times in England or elsewhere, and 
it is evident from his essay on education written twenty- 
four years after that Locke Avas even then opposed to the 
gathering together of youths in schools, holding that this 
manner of education was more productive of forwardness, 
mischief, and vice than of learning and the graces.^ 

1 Virginia, American Commonwealth Series (Cooke), 226. 

2 Locke's works, vol. Ill, Thoughts concerning Education, 70. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 109 

The whole scheme of the Fundamental Constitutions 
was visionary, crude, incomplete, and impracticable. For a 
province yet to be settled, in which society must build itself 
up from its very foundation, at first at least, beginning in 
its simplest and rudest forms, an elaborate and intricate 
system of government was provided, among the regulations 
for which it was deemed opportune to establish a court 
of heraldry with power to regulate fashions, games, and 
sports. It is difficult to use the language of moderation 
in discussing the provision prohibiting comments or ex- 
positions of the law, upon the ground that such would tend 
to obscure and perplex its text. No less preposterous was 
that declaring that one's age should be reckoned only 
from the day on which his birth was registered, and not 
from that on which he was born. It is hard to realize 
that the author of the Two Treatises on G-overnment of 
1689 could have been the designer and framer of the Fun- 
damental Constitutions of Carolina in 1669. But there 
was twenty years' difference between the times in which 
they were composed, and though in that time the philoso- 
pher had not risen to the conception of a school system 
for the new country, he had experienced the frowns of 
restored royalty and had followed his patron to Holland ; 
for thither the Earl of Shaftesbury had only escaped with 
his life from the tower and there, like his co-proprietor 
Clarendon, with whom he had quarrelled and against 
whom he had intrigued, Shaftesbury was to die in exile. 

In the dedication of a collection of several of Locke's 
pieces published under the direction of Anthony Collins, 
the writer discussing the relative advantages which are 
possessed by a philosopher over a courtier or politician in 
the preparation of such a work, it is said that though some 
may be of opinion that in the matters of state the politician 
ought to have the preference, this will not in the least 



llO HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLtNA 

diminish the value of the Fundamental Constitutions, since 
not only a philosopher, but a politician of the first rank, 
was concerned in them.^ It is well that Shaftesbury's 
reputation, we will not say as a politician but as a states- 
man, and Locke's as a philosopher, rest upon other works 
than this extraordinary product of their joint labors. 

Regarding the Fundamental Constitutions as fully es- 
tablished, — though the consent of the freemen had not 
been obtained, — the Proprietors then resident in England 
proceeded to establish a government under them. On 
the 21st of October, 1669, they met at the Cockpitt to or- 
ganize the Palatine's Court, whereupon as the Earl of 
Clarendon was in exile, deserted by his Royal master, 
Monk, the Duke of Albemarle, was elected the first Pala- 
tine ; the Earl of Craven, the first High Constable ; the 
Lord Berkeley, the first Chancellor ; the Lord Ashle}^ the 
first Chief Justice; Sir George Carteret, the first Admiral. 
Sir John Colleton had died in 1666, leaving Sir Peter, his 
son, his heir, so the latter was chosen the first High 
Steward. 2 Sir William Berkeley, as has been mentioned, 
was in America as Governor of Virginia. In this in the 
outset there was constituted an anomaly. The scheme of 
the constitution was that of a government of different 
parts, but of one system — a system of government for the 
province, and presumably to be carried on in the province. 
But the Palatine's Court was thus in the initiation of the 
government established in London. 

This body of laws never received the necessary assent 
and approbation of the freemen of the province, and so 
was never constitutionally of force ; but though not hav- 
ing the formal sanction of the charter, it is undoubtedly 
true that its provisions had a marked effect upon the 

1 Locke's works, vol. Ill, 652. 

2 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 179. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 111 

institutions of the colony and impressed upon the peo- 
ple, and upon their customs and habits, much of the tone 
and temper of its spirit. Seigniories, baronies, colonies, 
and manors were actually laid out, and Landgraves and 
Caciques appointed, some of whom took possession of their 
baronies. Some tracts of land in the lower part of South 
Carolina still, in part at least, bear the names then given 
them ; such, for instance, as the Colleton Barony, the 
Wadboo Barony, the Broughton Barony, etc. The power 
to confer titles of honor under the charter, it will be 
observed, restricted the bestowal of them upon '-'- such of 
the inhabitants of the said Province " as the Proprietors 
should think merited the honor ; but the Proprietors dis- 
regarded the restriction, and bestowed them upon persons 
who had never been in the colony. Thus, for instance, 
John Locke himself was the first Landgrave made. 
There is no record that Landgraves James Carteret, 
Thomas Amy, John Price, Abel Kettleby, or Edward 
Jauks (or Jenks) or Thomas Lowndes were ever in 
Carolina. By the constitutions the eldest of the Lords 
Proprietors, who should be personally present in Carolina, 
was thereby in fact the deputy of the Palatine, and if no 
Proprietor nor heir apparent of a Proprietor should be 
here, then the Palatine should choose for deputy any one 
of the Landgraves of the Grand Council who should be in 
the colony. It was probably to meet the provision of the 
constitutions that all or nearly all the Governors under 
the Proprietors were made Landgraves, and thus became 
deputies of the Palatine. Besides the Governors, but 
three or four Carolinians, i.e. inhabitants of the province, 
were deemed worthy of being appointed Landgraves.^ 
By the constitution Landgraves and Caciques were not 

1 See Appendix for Devolutions of Proprietary shares and list of Pala- 
tines, Landgraves, Caciques, and also of Governors. 



112 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

allowed after the year 1701 to alienate or assign their 
dignities, and yet Thomas Lowndes in 1728 procured a 
patent as assignee of John Price, neither having ever been 
in the province.^ 

The Proprietors were sensible, however, that such an 
elaborate scheme of government could not be put into 
immediate operation, and though for thirty years they 
persisted in their efforts to impose its provisions upon the 
province, they found it necessary in sending out their 
first colony to provide some temporary laws for the gov- 
ernment of the adventurers who composed it. These 
rules were embodied in the commission and instruction 
of the Governor. 

1 Coll. Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 174. 



CHAPTER y 

1669-70 

The failure of the colony at Cape Fear and the 
glowing account which Sandforcl had given of the 
country at Port Royal turned the attention of the Pro- 
prietors to the latter point, and induced them to devote 
their efforts to the establishment of a settlement there. 
In 1667 they fitted out a ship, gave the command of it to 
Captain William Sayle, and sent him out to bring them 
some further account of the coast. In his passage 
Captain Sayle was driven by a storm among the Bahama 
Islands, which accident he improved to the purpose of 
acquiring some knowledge of them, particularly of the 
Island of Providence, which he judged might be of service 
to the intended settlement of Carolina ; for in case of an 
invasion from the Spaniards, this island fortified might 
be made to serve as a check to the progress of their arms 
or a place of retreat to unfortunate colonists. Leaving 
Providence, he sailed along the coast of Carolina, where 
he observed several large navigable rivers emptying them- 
selves into the ocean, and a flat country covered with 
Avoods. He attempted to go ashore in his boat, but ob- 
serving some Indians on the banks of the river he was 
deterred; and having explored the coast and mouths of 
the rivers, he took his departure and returned to England. 
Why he was so easily frightened by the Indians does not 
more particularly appear ; but though he did not land, 
I 113 



114 MISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lie made a most favorable report to his employers, praised 
their possessions, and encouraged them to engage with 
vigor in the execution of their project. His report 
respecting the Bahama Islands induced the Proprietors to 
apply to the King for a grant of them also, and his 
Majesty added those between the twenty-second and 
twenty-seventh degrees to their former dominion. ^ 

No longer depending upon the attempts at colonization 
from Barbadoes alone, arrangements were now made to 
send out an expedition to Port Royal which was to be 
composed of emigrants from England, reinforced by others 
from Ireland, Barbadoes, and Bermuda. By articles of 
agreement signed by all the Proprietors, each undertook 
to contribute X500, equal at that time probably to about 
c£2000 or X2500 of present money ,^ to be laid out in ship- 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., 47, 48. 

2 It must be borne in mind that the purchasing power of money, i.e. its 
value, while constantly fluctuating, was formerly much greater than at 
present. Adam Smith states that during the sixteenth and the first half 
of the seventeenth century it fell to about a fourth of what it had been 
previously, so that the heirs of one who had bought a perpetual annuity 
in 1490 of £ 100 a year were not receiving in reality, in 1650, more than 
£25 in comparison with that of 1490. Wealth of Nations, vol. IV, 213. 
Froude estimated for the same time, i.e. the time of Henry VIII, that for 
a penny a laborer could buy as much beef, beer, and wine as the laborer 
of the nineteenth century could for a shilling ; that is, that the purchas- 
ing power of a penny was in the time of Henry VIII twelve times of the 
value it maintained when he wrote. History of England., vol. I, 34, These 
estimates do not exactly coincide, but they agree in the fact of the great 
depreciation of money value. Mr. Alexander Brown, in his Genesis of 
the United States, 810, estimates the subscriptions to the Virginia Com- 
pany, 1610-20, at from four to five times the present value of the 
pound sterling, making the pound at that time equal to $20 to $25 of 
our present currency. This estimate has been adopted by Mr. Bruce in 
his Economical History of Virginia, vol. I, 28, vol. II, 172, 247, 249, etc., 
as a rough measure of the value of the pound in the seventeenth century. 
This may be accepted as approximately correct, but it nmst be remem- 
bered that the value of money, while generally depreciating, was subject 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 115 

ping, arms, ammunition, tools, and provisions for the settle- 
ment of Port Royal, and a further sum of X 200 per annum 
for the next four years. It was further agreed that any 
Proprietor neglecting or refusing to pay in any of the 
said sums should relinquish and convey his share to the 
rest of the Proprietors. A fleet of three ships was pur- 
chased at a cost of X3200 16s. 6d. ; viz. the Carolina^ 
Captain Henry Braine master,^ — the same who had 
accompanied Sandford in his voyage to Port Royal, the 
Po}'t Royal^ John Russell master, and the Albemarle^ 
Edward Baxter master. These vessels were laden with 
stores, merchandise, munitions of war, and all equipments 
necessary for planting a colony of two hundred people ; 
a number which was believed would be strong enough for 
self-protection and to make a permanent settlement.'^ 

On the 27th of July, 1669, Mr. Joseph West was 
appointed Governor and Commander-in-chief of the fleet 
and of the persons embarked in it bound for Carolina 
until its arrival in Barbadoes, or until another Governor 
was appointed. Mr. West's instructions accompanying 
his commission as Governor directed him with all possible 
speed to sail for Kinsale in Ireland, where he was to pro- 
cure twenty or twenty-five servants, and then to sail 
directly to Barbadoes. God sending the fleet safe to 
Barbadoes, Mr. West was there to furnish himself with 

to continuous fluctuation as it is to-day. In this instance we think the 
value of the money agreed to be contributed by the Proprietors may with 
some certainty be accepted as stated in the text as from four to five of 
the present value of the pound. 

1 Calendar State Papers^ Colonial (Sainsbury, London, 1859), Preface 
and 54, 55, 99. 

In Sandford' s account of his voyage the name is spelled Brayne, as 
in the third chapter of this work, 

^Shaftesbury Papers; Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 
1883, 365 ; Oldmixon, Carolina. 



116 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

cotton seed, indigo seed, ginger roots, which roots he was 
to carry planted in a tub of earth so that they might not 
die before their arrival at Port Royal ; also, in another tub, 
he was to carry canes, planted for trial, also the several 
sorts of vines of that island, and olives, all of which 
would be procured by Mr. Thomas Colleton, to whom the 
fleet was consigned. The most minute instructions were 
also given for his conduct at Port Royal, — the clearing 
of the lands, building of houses, planting the seeds, and 
the care of cattle which were to be procured from Vir- 
ginia. He was to take from Barbadoes half a dozen 
young sows and a boar, which were to be furnished by 
Mr. Thomas Colleton if his own funds were not sufficient. 
Mr. John Rivers, who was to go out as the agent of Lord 
Ashley, was to take charge of the storehouse containing 
the materials of war, and to give them out only as directed 
by the Governor and Council. . Captain Henry Braine was 
placed under the command of West until the arrival of 
the fleet at Barbadoes, when he was to obey the Governor 
to be appointed, and to return from Port Royal to Barba- 
does, or to go to Virginia, as he should be directed by 
Sir John Yeamans, Mr. Thomas Colleton, and Major 
Kingsland. If he was sent to Virginia, he was then to 
take in passengers and other freight for Port Royal. ^ 

Sir John Yeamans, though actively engaged in the 
political affairs of Barbadoes, still bore the commission of 
Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Carolina, but his 
ill success. with his colony at Cape Fear had cooled the 
fervor of the Proprietors, and, tliough they recommended 
the expedition to his care and assistance, did not directly 
reappoint him its Governor, but sent a blank commission 
to be filled by him according to circumstances.^ Witli the 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 92, and Appendix, 342-345. 

2 Year Book City of Charleston, 1883 (Courtenay), 368. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 117 

commission in blank were also sent deputations from the 
Proprietors respectively, also in blank, to be filled as 
was the Governor's. The deputies to be thus appointed 
were to form the Governor's Council, and for their 
guidance instructions were annexed to the commissions 
and deputations. 

These instructions^ began with the observation that as 
the number of people to be set down at Port Royal would 
be so small, and as there were as yet no Landgraves and 
Caciques, it would not be possible to put the grand model 
of government at once into practice. Notwithstanding 
this, however, in order that they might come as nigh as 
possible thereto the Governor and Council were instructed : 

1. As soon as they arrived at Port Ro3^al they were to 
summon all the freemen in the colony and require them 
to elect five persons, who, being joined to the five deputed 
by the respective Proprietors, were to be the Council, with 
whose advice and consent, or of at least six of them, all 
being summoned, they were to govern according to the 
instructions, and to put in practice what they could of 
their Fundamental Constitutions. 

2. They were required to cause all the persons so chosen 
to swear allegiance to the King, and to subscribe fidelity 
and submission to the Proprietors and to the form of gov- 
ernment by them established. 

3. The Governor and Council were to choose some fit- 
ting place wherein to build a fort ; under the protection 
of which was to be the first town. The streets of the 
toAvn were to be so arranged as to be commanded by the 
guns on the fort. 

4. The stores of all kinds were to be kept within the 
fort. 

5. If the first town was placed upon an island, the 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 347. 



118 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

whole island was to be divided into colonies and reserved 
for the people, and no seigniory or barony was to be taken 
up in it. But if the first town was planted on the main, 
then the next six adjoining squares of 12,000 acres were 
to be all colonies, so that the people might first be planted 
together in convenient numbers. 

6. In order to avoid offending the Indians, no one was 
to be allowed to take up land within two miles and a half 
of any Indian town. 

7. The Governor and Council were to establish such 
courts as they should think fit for the administration of 
justice till the grand model of government could be put 
into operation. 

8. They were to summon the freeholders of the colony 
and to require them to elect twenty persons, who, together 
with the deputies, were for the present to be the Parlia- 
ment, and by and with whose consent the Governor was 
to make such laws as he should from time to time find 
necessary, which laws, being ratified by the Governor and 
any three of his five deputies, were to be in force, as pro- 
vided in the Fundamental Constitutions, that is, until 
passed upon by the Palatine's court in England. 

9. All persons above the age of sixteen years who 
should come to Port Royal to plant or settle there, before 
the 25th of March, 1670, were to be granted 150 acres of 
land for themselves, and 150 acres more for every able 
man-servant they brought with them or caused to be 
transported into the colony, and 100 acres more for every 
woman-servant, and man-servant under sixteen years of 
age. And 100 acres were to be given to every servant 
who served out his time. 

10. To every free person that should arrive to plant 
and inhabit before the twenty-fifth day of March, 1671, 100 
acres, and 100 more for each servant he brought w itli him 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 119 

or caused to be transported into the colony, 70 acres for 
every woman-servant, or man-servant under sixteen years 
of age. And to every servant that should arrive before 
the time last mentioned, 70 acres. 

11. To every free person that should arrive before the 
25th of March, 1672, with intent to plant, 70 acres, and 
70 acres more for each man brought with him, and 60 
acres for each woman-servant or man-servant under six- 
teen years of age. To every servant who should arrive 
before this time, 70 acres upon the expiration of his term 
of servitude. 

12. The land was to be laid out in squares of 12,000 
acres, each of Avhich squares taken up by a Proprietor was 
to be a seigniory, each taken up by a Landgrave or Cacique 
to be a barony, each set aside for the people to be a 
colony. The proportion of 24 colonies to 8 seigniories 
and 8 baronies was to be preserved. 

13. The people were ordered to settle in towns, and 
that one town at least should be laid out in each colony. 
No inhabitant of any of the colonies, that is, no common 
person, was to be allowed to have a greater proportion of 
front upon a river than a fifth part of the depth of his 
land. 

14. A person having brought out servants to settle was 
to appear before the Governor and Council, who were 
thereupon to issue to him a warrant to the surveyor 
general to lay him out a parcel of land according to these 
instructions, which survey, when returned, was to be 
recorded, and the person to whom the land was granted 
was then to be sworn to his allegiance to the King, fidelity 
and submission to the Lords Proprietors and the Funda- 
mental Constitutions and form of government, whereupon 
the grant was to pass under the seal. 

The Proprietors thus attempted to evade the provision 



120 HISTOUY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in their charter which secured to the freemen in the 
province the right to particij^ate in the formation of the 
government, and to force upon them the Fundamental 
Constitutions which the Proprietors had adopted. The 
charter gave to the Proprietors, as we have seen, power 
and authority to make and enact laws, only " by and 
with the advice assent and approbation of the Freemen 
of the Province." Disregarding this plain restriction upon 
their power, the Proprietors formulate in advance an 
elaborate and minute system of government with the 
avowed purpose of curtailing the power of the people who 
should settle the province — as they euphemistically ex- 
pressed it, to "avoid erecting a numerous democracy." 
To this plan of government, so devised that in all as- 
semblies or parliaments, as they were grandiloquently 
termed, the representatives of the people must inevi- 
tably be outvoted in all questions by a patrician order 
established in advance, every freeman before taking part 
in the government, or being allowed to take out a grant 
of land, was required to subscribe his submission, and 
thus commit himself to a waiver of his rights under the 
Royal charter. 

Ramsay, in the introductor}^ chapter to his history, 
states that neither the number of the first settlers nor 
their names, with the exception of Sayle and West, have 
reached posterity. The Shaftesbury papers recently given 
by the family to the State paper office in London, some 
of which have been published by the city council of Charles- 
ton, have in some degree supplied this information. On 
the 17th of August, 1669, three vessels, the Carolina^ 
the Port Itof/aly and the Albemarle lay at anchor in the 
Downes, with their crews and ninety -three passengers in 
the Carolina^ — how many in the other vessels is not stated, 
— with supplies of all kinds aboard and ready for sea. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 



121 



Of the ninety-three passengers aboard the Carolina^ six- 
teen were masters, one of whom had with him a wife, 
sixty-three servants, and thirteen persons who brought 
no servants. The first name is that of Captain Sullivan 
(Florence O'Sullivan), a name perpetuated in that of 
Sullivan's Island, Cliarleston harbor. There is one other 
name destined to appear much in the history of South 
Carolina, and which has continued in his family from the 
very first settlement to the present time. This is the 
name of Stephen Bull.^ 



1 Year Book City of Charleston,, 1883 (Courtenay), 366; Centennial 
Address, from Shaftesbury Papers. Ibid., 1886, 243. 

A List of all such Masters, free Passengers and S'v't's which are 
now aboard the Carolina now ridinge in the Downes, August the lOtli 
1669 



Capt Sullivan 

Ealph Marshall James Montgomery 

Eich : AUexander Stephen Wheelwright 

Tho Kinge Eliz Dommocke 
EUz ; Mathews 

Step Bull 

Robert Done Barnaby Bull 

Tho Ingram Jonathan Barker 

John Larmouth Dudley Widgier 



Ed Hollis and Jos Dalton 

Thomas Younge 
Will. Chambers 
Will lloades 
Jane Lawson 



George Prideox 
Henry Price 
John Dawson 
Alfrd Harleston 
Susanna Kinder 

Tho* and Paule Smith 
Aice Rixe Jo Hudlesworth 

Jo. Burroughs Hugh Wigleston 



Eliz. Smith 
Francis Noone 



Andrew Boorno 



Hambleton (Jno Hamilton) 



Tho Gourden 
,h) Frizen 
Edw Young 
Samuel Morris 
Agnis Payne 



Will Lumsden 
Step Flinte 
Jo Thomson 
Tho Southell 
Jo. Keed. 



Jo ElVERS. 

Tho Poole Rob. Williams 

Henry Burgen Math Smalhvood 



NiCH Cartuwright 

Tho Gubbs Jo Loyde 

Martin Bedson Step Price 

Will Jenkins 

Morris Mathews 

Alva Phillips Reginold Barefoot 

Mathew Hewitt Eliz Carrie 

Will Bowman 

Abraham Smith Miliicent Howe 

Doctor Will Scrivener 

Margaret Tudor. 

Will Owens 

John Humphreys Christopher Swade 
John Borley 

Tho Midbleton Eliz. rcxor ejus 
Eich Wright Tho Wormes 

Samuel West 
Andrew Searle Will AVest 

Joseph Bailey 
John Carmichaell 

Passengers that have noe Servants 

Mr Tho Rideall Mr Will Houghton 

Mr Will Ilennis Mr Tho Hunifreys 

Eliz Humi)in-eys Marie Clerke 

Sampson Darkenwell Nathanyell Darkenwell 

Mrs Sarah Erpe Eliz Erpe 

Martha Powell Mrs Mary Erpe 
Thomas Motteshed 



* This Tho Smith has been supposed by some to have been the Thomas Smith the 
Landgrave ; but this is a mistake. Landgrave SiiAith did not come to Carolina until 16S7. 



122 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The fleet stopped at Kinsale, but took in only seven 
servants there, and sailed according to instructions to 
Barbadoes, which was reached in October ; it was con- 
signed to Thomas Colleton, one of the distinguished 
family of that name in Barbadoes — a son of Sir John, 
one of the original Proprietors, and brother of Sir Peter, 
the present Proprietor, who had once been temporarily 
Governor of that island, and of James, who afterwards 
was to become Governor of this province. 

Besides the causes of discontent of the planters of Bar- 
badoes to which we have alluded, a succession of dreadful 
hurricanes had occurred, which, added to the fact that the 
island was over populated, and that the planters were leav- 
ing for the Bahamas and other islands, induced the Pro- 
prietors to hope that their colony would find many there 
who would join it for the new province. It was thought 
that over one hundred emigrants might be secured there. 
In securing these the influence of Sir John Yeamans and 
Thomas Colleton was much relied upon ; but many disas- 
ters occurred at Barbadoes. While lying there on the 2d 
of November a Sfale struck the fleet and the Albemarle was 
driven on the rocks of the coast and shipwrecked. One 
of the cables of the Carolina was also broken and the Port 
Royal lost an anchor and a cable. To save the ship's stores, 
man}^ were put ashore until repairs could be completed 
and another sloop hired to continue the voyage. Another 
vessel Avas also procured in the place of the Albemarle. 

Sir John Yeamans encouraged the expedition, and deter- 
mined to go with it himself to Port Royal. The fleet sailed, 
but was soon forced to put in at Nevis, a British West India 
island. There they found Dr. Henry Woodward, whom 
Sandford had left with the Indians at Port Royal in 1665. 
He had been well treated by the Indians, but had been 
surprised and captured by Spaniards at St. Helena, and 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 123 

taken prisoner to St. Augustine ; he had been rescued and 
carried to the Leeward Islands, from which he shipped as 
surgeon of a privateer and was cast away on the island 
in the hurricane of the 17th of August which had wrecked 
the Albemarle. Notwithstanding these adventures, he 
promptly volunteered to join the expedition, and to give 
it the benefit of his experience. His services were at 
once accepted.^ 

Sir John Yeamans here put on board the Port Royal one 
Christopher Barrowe, with instructions to pilot the ship 
to Port Royal. From Nevis the fleet had good weather 
until near land, when the Port Royal parted from the 
other vessels. The Carolina and the Barbadian sloop 
reached Bermuda. By the advice of Barrowe the Port 
Royal sailed southward and, endeavoring to touch at the 
Bahama Islands, was cast away near Abaco, one of those 
islands, on the 12th of January, 1669-70. The company 
reached the shore by means of the small boat, but many 
lost their lives on that island. Here Russell, the master 
of the Port Royal., built a boat in which they got to Eleu- 
thera, another of the Bahama Islands, where he hired a 
shallop and sailed to New Providence, whence most of the 
survivors obtained transportation to Bermuda. The rest 
they left at Providence, except Barrowe and his wife, who 
went to New York.^ 

At Bermuda Sir John withdrew entirely from the 
management of the expedition, assigning as his reason 
that he was obliged to return to Barbadoes to be in readi- 
ness to act as one of the commissioners previously ap- 
pointed for negotiating with French commissioners in 
regard to their dispossession and expulsion of the English 

1 Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, London, 1889, 246. 

2 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 369; Shaftesbury 
Papers. 



124 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

settlers from their plantations in St. Christopher's Island 
in 1666. Upon his Avithdrawal, he persuaded the advent- 
urers to take William Sayle, whom he describes as " a 
man of no great sufficiency yet the ablest I could meet 
with," and inserted his name in the blank commission 
which he had from the Lords Proprietors. A reason he 
assigned for doing this was that being a Bermudian he 
thought Sayle might induce others to embark with them 
in the enterprise. Thus accidentally was the first Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina appointed. ^ 

The deputations in blank were filled as follows : Joseph 
West, deputy for the Duke of Albemarle, Dr. William 
Scrivener for Lord Berkeley, Stephen Bull for Lord 
Ashley, William Bowman for Lord Craven. Florence 
O'Sullivan must have represented either Sir George 
Carteret or Sir Peter Colleton. ^ 

The appointment of Sayle gave rise to much discontent. 
A writer describes him as " of Bermuda, a Puritan and 
nonconformist, whose religious bigotry, advanced age 
and failing health promised badly for the discharge of 
the task before him." Two others of the party, William 
Scrivener and William Owen, were for bringing suit 
against Sir John, but the matter was '' salved over " and 
the expedition sailed from Bermuda February 26, 1669-70, 
a sloop having been procured in the place of the Port 
Royal. 

After leaving Bermuda, the expedition encountered bad 
weather again. The Carolina and the Bermuda sloop suc- 
ceeded in keeping near each other, but the Barbadian 
sloop was separated and did not rejoin the others until 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 369, 370; Hist. 
Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 88. 

■■2 This list has been collated by and kindly given nie by Langdon 
Cheves, Esq. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 125 

about the 23d of May, more than a month after their 
arrival at Ashley River. 

Mr. Hugh Carteret, who was in the Carolina^ gives an 
account of his trip from Bermuda. He writes : — 

" Sayling thence on Feb'y 26th we came up with land 
between Cape Romano and Port Royall at a place called 
So wee or Sewee and next day brought the ship in, through 
a very handsome channel and lay there at anchor a week." ^ 

The first landing of this expedition was thus made 
about March 17, 1670, in Sewee Bay at the back of Bull's 
Island. The name and the fact that '' the ship came in 
through a very handsome channel " establishes this with 
great certainty. The Indians there informed Sayle that 
a tribe known as the Westoes had ruined St. Helena and 
the country northward as far as Kiawha (Ashley River) 
about a day's journey distant. The Cacique of Kiawha, 
presumably the same who had endeavored to persuade 
Sandford to visit his country three years before, now 
again came to the ships and renewed the praises of their 
land. Taking him aboard after a conference, Sayle and 
his party left their anchorage and, sailing to the south- 
ward, entered Port Royal. It was two days before they 
could communicate with the Indians, who confirmed what 
had been told them at Sewee. 

During their short stay at Port Royal, Governor Sayle 
summoned the " freemen," according to the instructions 
accompanying his commission, to elect five men " to be of 
the council," and they elected Paul Smith, Robert Donne, 
Ralph Marshall, Samuel West, and Joseph Dalton as their 
representatives. This was the first election in South 
Carolina. We have no record whether it was by ballot 
or by poll. William Owen, "always itching to be in 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 370 ; from Shaftes- 
bury Papers. 



126 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

authority," censured the legality of the election, where- 
upon the freemen met a second time and confirmed their 
former choice. 

The expedition then left Port Royal and ran in between 
St. Helena Island and Combahee. Many went ashore 
at St. Helena and found the land good and many peach 
trees. From this point the Bermuda sloop was dis- 
patched to Kiawha to view that land so much com- 
mended by the Cacique, and word was brought back 
that the land was better to plant. After some discus- 
sion, the Governor favoring Kiawha, it was determined 
to settle permanently there. Anchors were weighed, the 
vessels stood to the north, and entering Avhat is now 
Charleston harbor, then called by the Spaniards St. 
George's Bay, the colony landed in April on the first high 
point on the western bank of the Kiawha, which Sandford 
in passing had called the Ashley.^ The point on which they 
settled they named " Albemarle Point. " 

Mr. Morris (or Maurice) Mathews, who was in the Bar- 
badian sloop procured to supply the place of the Albe- 
marle which was lost at Barbadoes, has left an account 
which enables us to follow that sloop in her perils after 
leaving Bermuda. 

On the 15th of May, by stress of weather, she was 
driven to the Island of St. Catharine about latitude 



1 Indians did not name rivers. Settlers in America often named them 
from the neighboring Indian tribes, but did not find them so called. 
Sandford says: "I demanded the name of this River. They told mee 
Edistowe still and pointed all to be Edistowe quite home to the side of 
Jordan by which I was instructed that the Indians assigne not their 
names to the Rivers but to the Country es and people." — Year Book City 
of Charleston (Courtenay), 1685, 275. The first colonists called this river 
Keawaw, or Ashley. On Culpepper's first map of the settlement, March 7, 
1672, Cooper River is put down as the Wando, and the present Wando 
as the Etiwan. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 127 

31 degrees. There they proceeded to " wood and water " 
the vessel. They traded with the Indians and enter- 
tained them aboard the vessel. On the next day "a 
semi-Spaniard Indian " came aboard with a present of 
bread set for the master and promised pork in exchange 
for "truck." On the 17th the master and mate and Mr. 
Rivers, who also was in this company, three seamen and 
one man-servant went ashore with truck to buy pork — 
for the sloojj's use. Two other men-servants went ashore 
to cut wood and two females to wash linen. The Spaniards 
and Indians treacherously made prisoners of a part or all 
ashore and commanded the sloop " to yield to the sover- 
eignty of St. Domingo." This demand was declined, 
whereupon the Spaniards, finding that their demands 
were not obeyed, opened fire with their muskets and 
bows, but only succeeded in damaging the vessel's sails. 
The next day a favorable wind springing up, the men 
aboard the sloop gave the Indians a parting salute with 
their muskets, which sent them behind the trees, and 
hauled the ship out of gun-shot. Leaving the island, 
several days were spent in sailing about the Carolina 
coast until they arrived opposite 'Kldistash " (Edisto). 
Here the Indians welcomed them, told them of the English 
at Kiawha, and offered to show them the way over. The 
next morning they arrived at the entrance to Kiawha, 
where they met the Bermudian sloop going to fish, which 
piloted them into Kiawha River. The prisoners taken by 
the Spaniards were subsequently sent to St. Augustine.^ 

The colonists were thus once more united. Two out of 
the three ships that sailed from the Thames and some 
lives had been lost. Just how many of the original com- 
pany arrived at Kiawha cannot now be ascertained. The 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 372; Colonial 
Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 207. 



128 HISTORY OB^ SOUTH CAROLINA 

company had been increased at Barbadoes, and some also 
had probably joined at Bermuda. One ship only of the 
original expedition reached Carolina. Five had been 
engaged in the expedition from the time the colonists 
left the Downes to the landing at Kiawha.^ 

It is a curious and interesting circumstance that just 
about this time Sir William Berkeley, the Governor of Vir- 
ginia, had commissioned John Lederer, a learned German, 
to make explorations to the mountainous part of that 
province, and that in his wanderings with a single Indian 
guide he is believed to have reached the Santee, and if so, 
had he crossed that river and pushed on a little farther, he 
might have found Governor Sayle and the colony only 
just arrived. Dr. Hawks, the historian of North Caro- 
lina, however, upon a careful study of Lederer's journal 
as translated by Sir William Talbot, Governor of Mary- 
land, from the original, which was written in Latin, and a 
map which accompanied it, concludes, we think judiciously, 
that the wanderings of the learned German were within 
the present boundaries of the State of North Carolina. ^ 

1 This account of the voyage of the colonists has been collated princi- 
pally from the Centennial Address of Major W, A. Courtenay, Year Book 
City of Charleston^ 1883, and by him compiled from MS. Shaftesbury 
Papers of the So. Ca. Hist. Society, now about to be published. 

2 Hist, of No. Ca. .(Hawks), vol. II, 43. 



CHAPTER VI 
1670-71 

The colonists, upon landing at Albemarle Point on 
the Ashley, entrenched themselves and began to lay out 
streets and town lots, and to build fortifications and 
houses. They were gladly received by the Indians in 
the neighborhood, whose Cacique had so urgently pressed 
them to settle there, not altogether unselfishly, however, 
but because of the protection the Kiawhas hoped the 
colony would afford them against the Westoes, who then 
inhabited the region about Port Royal, and of Avhom they 
stood in mortal dread, representing them as cannibals. 
The Kiawhas brought the settlers venison and skins for 
trade, and oysters were found in great plenty, though not 
so pleasant to the taste "as your Wallfleet oyster." 
The turkeys were bigger than those at home. As the 
Kiawhas, however, could not take care of themselves, still 
less could they secure the new-comers from the other Ind- 
ians, and the colonists were obliged to stand continually 
on their guard. While one party was employed in raising 
their little habitations, another was always kept under 
arms to watch the Indians.^ 

Nor were the Indians their only or their worst foes. 
The peace concluded between England and Spain in 1667, 
and the recognition by Spain of the rights of England 

^ Calendar State Papers^ Colonial^ London, 1889, 255-257 ; Hewatt, 
Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 49. 

K 129 



130 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to her possessions in America, was one of the induce- 
ments to the Proprietors to begin the settlement of their 
province. But Spain, while acknowledging the right of 
England to such possessions, had not agreed to any defini- 
tion of her territory. She had never admitted the right 
of England to tliat covered by the charters of the Pro- 
prietors. She still claimed a greater part of it as be- 
longing to Florida. Charleston harbor was still hers, as 
St. George's Bay. The Spaniards at St. Augustine were 
thus for near a century a thorn in the side of the colony 
of Carolina. There was a castle there usually garrisoned 
by about 300 or 400 regular troops. Besides these, the 
inhabitants of the towns, many of whom were mulattoes 
of savage dispositions, were all in the King's pay and 
formed into a militia, computed to be about the same 
number as the regular troops. This idle population, rely- 
ing on the King's pay only, giving no attention to agri- 
culture or trade, or any other peaceful pursuit, were ready 
at all times for mischievous adventures, and furnished a 
body whose deeds of hostility might be conveniently 
avowed or disowned as circumstances required. These 
people, regardless of the declaration of peace, had no idea 
of standing by and idly looking on the establishment of 
an English colony at St. George's Bay. They sent an 
expedition at once to break it up. The vessel they sent 
entered the Stono, but finding the colonists on tlieir guard 
and stronger than they had expected did not attack, but 
returned to St. Augustine. They had, however, shown 
the settlers on the Ashley River that they were but an 
outpost to the other English colonies in America, liable 
at any moment to be attacked, and beyond the reach of 
timely assistance. Governor Sayle, notwithstanding his 
great age, shared in all the hardships Avith his fellow- 
adventurers and by his example animated and encouraged 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 131 

them to perseverance. In May the Carolina was sent to 
Virginia for provisions, and on the twenty-seventh day of 
June the Barbadian shallop was dispatched to Bermuda 
for settlers and for supplies. The Carolina returned on 
the 22d of August to Kiawha and in September was 
sent to Barbadoes, whence she did not return until early 
in the next year.^ 

Governor Sayle is said to have been a Puritan, and the 
style and tone of the following letter, which he wrote to 
Lord Ashley from Albemarle Point on the 25th of June, 
1670, is certainly in accordance with the temper of that 
religious class, though it was a clergyman of the Church 
of England for whose ministrations he was appealing — a 
clergyman for whom Sir John Yeamans had promised to 
procure a commission from the King to make him their 
minister. He writes : — 

"Though we are (att pr'sent) under some straight for want of 
provision (incident to the best of new plantations) yet we doubt not 
(through the goodness of God) of remits from sundry places to w'ch 
we have sent. But there is one thing which lyes very heavy upon us, 
the want of a Godly and orthodox minist'r w'ch I and many others 
of us have ever lived under as the greatest of o'r Mercys. May it 
please your Lords'p in my late country of Bermudas there are divers 
Minstr's of whom there is one Mr Sampson Bond heretofore of long 
standing in Exeter Colledge in Oxford and ordaigned by the late 
Bishop of Exeter the ole Do'r Joseph Hall. And by a commission 
from the Earl of Manchester and company for the Sumer Islands 
sent theere in the yeere 1662 for the term of three yeeres under whose 
powerfull and soul-edefying Ministry I have lived eight yeeres last 
past. There was nothing in all this world soe grievous to my spirit 
as the thought of partitig with his Godly society and faithfuU min- 
istry. But I did a little comfort myself that it might please y'r'^ Lord 
by some good measure or other to enclyne his heart to come after us, 
who hath little respect from some who are now in authority in Ber- 

1 He watt, Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 51. 

2 Probably should be ye. 



132 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mudas w'ch is a great discouragm'nt to him, w'ch is taken notice of 
in other places, and he is invited to Boston in New England and to 
New York by the Govern'r there tenders of large encouragement if 
he will come to ye one or other place. I have likewise writt most 
earnestly to him desiring that he would come and sitt downe with us, 
assuring him that it is not only my urgent request, but withall the 
most hearty request of ye colony in generall, who were exceedingly 
affected with him and his ministry all the tyme they were in Ber- 
mudas." ^ 

Again in a letter of 9tli September, in which Florence 
O'Sullivan, Stephen Bull, Joseph West, William Scrivener, 
Ralph Marshall, Paul Smith, Samuel West, and Joseph 
Dalton join, he urges the great want of an able minister 
by whose means corrupted youth might be reclaimed and 
the people instructed. The Israelites' prosperity decayed 
when their prophets were wanting, for where the ark of 
God is, he says, there is peace and tranquillity. 

The Lords Proprietors authorized an offer to be made 
to Mr. Bond of 500 acres of land and £40 per annum to 
come to Carolina, but they declared that though allowed 
to be a preacher among the colonists, they gave neither 
him nor Sayle authority to compel any one in matters of re- 
ligion, having in their Fundamental Constitutions granted 
a freedom which they resolved to keep inviolable. Mr. 
Bond did not come, but remained at Bermuda many years 
afterwards.^ 

While Sayle and other leaders of the colony were 
doubtless men of strong religious character, the com- 
pany generally was composed of adventurers of the ordi- 
nary type ; men no doubt of irreligious and reckless 
lives. So Ave read that on the 4th of July, the Governor 
and Council, haying been informed how much the Sab- 

^ Shafteshimj Papers; Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), 
1889, 202, 489 ; Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 374. 
2 Anderson's Hist, of the Colonial Church, vol. II, 336. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 133 

bath day was profanely violated, and of divers grand 
abuses practised by the people to the great dishonor of 
God Almighty and the destruction of good neighbor- 
hood, took seriously into consideration by what means 
these evils might be redressed. And here at once the 
absurdity of the grand model of government with which 
they had come encumbered, and the inadequacy and 
unsuitableness of their powers even under the instruc- 
tions to the Governor and Council, became apparent. By 
the latter, the Governor, with the five deputies of the 
Proprietors and the five " freemen " elected at Port Koyal, 
were to govern according to the limitations and instruc- 
tions of the Fundamental Constitutions as far as was 
practicable ; but they were required also to summon 
the " freeholders " to choose twenty persons who, with the 
deputies, were to form a Parliament. Now it was found 
that the number of freeholders in the colony were 
"nott neere sufficient to elect a Parliam't." The Gov- 
ernor, thereupon, with the consent of his Council made 
such orders as were thought convenient to suppress the 
abuses.^ Such temporary orders were expressly provided 
for under the provisions of the charter, but had not been 
either under the constitutions or the instructions brought 
out by Governor Sayle. Nor was there found wanting in 
the colony one astute enough to perceive the dilemma, 
though there was no lawyer among these people, who by the 
constitutions were to attend each to his own law business. 
The Governor summoned all the people to hear the orders 
he had determined upon. Mr. William Owen, the same 
who had " censured the legality " of tlie election held at 
Port Royal, and who is now described as one " willing to 
doe any thing though ever so ill in itselfe, rather than 

1 Shaftesbury Papers; Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), 
Loudon, 1889, 181 ; Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883. 



134 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

not to appeare to be a man of accion," persuaded the peo- 
ple that without a Parliament no such orders could pass. 
In this he was supported by Dr. William Scrivener, deputy 
of Lord Berkeley. While the Governor and Council were 
discussing this new point and other matters, Owen, con- 
stituting himself manager and returning officer, held elec- 
tion on the 4th of July and took down the names of those 
elected. The Governor and Council, in their account of 
the matter, say that two of the Parliament men returned 
Avere servants — " Mich Moran a laboring Irishman and 
Rich Crossley set free by his master for idleness "; but 
among the Shaftesbury papers is one entitled " Mr. Owen's 
Parliament's Return," which gives the names of those 
elected ; viz. Maurice Mathews, Henry Hughes, John 
Jon^s, Thomas Smith, Henry Symons, Henry Woodward, 
Hugh Carteret, James Marschall, Anthony Churne, Will- 
iam Kennis, George Beadon, Jonathan Baker, Thomas 
Ingram, Thomas Norris, and Will Owen. The names of 
the two servants, Moran and Crossley, do not appear. 
Though "Mr. Owen's Parliament's Return" recites that 
the election was held by the Governor's orders and sum- 
mons, the Governor and Council took no notice of it, 
and the Governor's orders were published and received 
without further question. 

Owen and Scrivener were not, however, so easily sub- 
dued. The Governor and Council complain to the Lords 
Proprietors that Owen, finding himself " swallowed up in 
a general consent," fell upon a new stratagem, and per- 
suaded the people, especially the new-comers, that as 
there was no great seal in the province, unless a Parlia- 
ment were forthwith chosen to prevent it, their lands and 
all their improvements might be taken away at pleasure. 
" Now," says the Governor, " Owen hath hit the mark, he 
is what he would be, the leader of a company of people 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 135 

upon any terms, the people's prolocutor, and therefore 
must have room in the council to show himself and the 
people's grievances." The Governor and Council patiently 
heard, they declare, Owen's argument upon the inter- 
pretation of their Lordship's instructions, after which the 
Governor made a speech to the people, giving them to 
understand his power and authority to assure them their 
lands until their great seal arrived, and that he intended 
to summon a Parliament when opportunity served or 
necessity required ; whereupon, he sa3'^s, all or most of the 
freemen were fully satisfied. Scrivener, however, he goes 
on to say, perceiving that Owen and himself were likely 
to lose reputation as men of understanding, rose up, 
and with more than ordinary heat desired the people to 
take notice that he conceived their proposals — that is, 
that it was necessary to have a Parliament called to secure 
their lands from forfeiture — very just and reasonable, 
and that those who would not support them were dis- 
turbers of the peace and infringers of the people's lib- 
erties. This was more than the Governor and Council 
could stand, and they report that for such speeches, tend- 
ing to the slighting and utter destruction of the present 
government, and inciting the people to sedition and 
mutiny and consequently to the ruin of the settlement, 
it was that same day ordered that from thenceforth 
Scrivener be suspended from tlie Council, and that both 
he and Owen be incapable of bearing any public office or 
employment in the colony until farther orders.^ Scriv- 
ener was, however, soon back in the Council. In Novem- 
ber Braine writes to Lord Ashley that there are but five 
men in the Council that have any reason, — Captain West, 

^ Shafteshunj Papers ; Calendar State Papers^ Colonial^ London, 1889, 
213, 329, 471, 473; Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 
375. 



136 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Messrs. Bull, Scrivener, Dun, and Dalton.^ 'And Owen, 
too, whose election to Parliament by the people in July, 
1670 the Governor would not allow, some time after took 
his seat in the Council itself, as the deputy of Sir Peter 
Colleton. 2 In the meanwhile he is in correspondence 
with Lord Ashley, who thanks him for his letters, which 
indeed are among the ablest written from the colony. ^ 
Writing to Robert Blaney, secretary to Lord Ashley, 
he speaks not unkindly of the Governor. He cannot 
believe but that the Governor is honest, but whether of 
parts sufficiently qualified in judging civil rights he can- 
not tell. A man for this place must be of parts, learning, 
and policy, and of a moderate zeal ; not strict Episcopal, 
nor yet licentious nor rigid " Presbyterian nor yet 
hypocritical, but saving himself in an even balance be- 
tween all opinions, but especially turning his fore to the 
church of England." * 

The Carolina, under command of Captain Henry Braine, 
which had been sent to Virginia in May, 1670, returned, 
as we have seen, to Kiawha on the 22d of August with sup- 
plies. Florence O'Sullivan had written to Lord Ashley by 
her, by the way of Virginia, and he wrote again on the 
10th of September, that the country proves good beyond 
expectation, abounding in all things, as good oak, ash, 
deer, turkeys, partridges, rabbits, turtle, and fish, and the 
land produces anything that is put into it ; for they had 
tried it with corn, cotton, tobacco, and other provisions, 
which did well, the lateness of the season considered. He 
had made discoveries in the country, and found it good, 
with many pleasant rivers. 

The Carolina had returned from Virginia in good time; 

1 Calendar State Papers, 329, 473. 

2 Ibid, 721 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist, 11. 

3 Calendar State Papers, 261, 491. 

* Shaftesbury Papers; Calendar State Papers, 473. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 137 

for all the provisions were gone, and the colonists forced 
to live upon the friendly Indians, some of whom were 
very kind to them. She then sailed again for Barbadoes, 
seeking emigrants and fresh supplies. O'Sallivan was 
evidently not a Puritan, as Sayle was, nor did he believe 
in the doctrine of the Fundamental Constitutions, that the 
colony could get along without lawyers. He writes : — 

" Wee expect from yo'' hono" a shipp from England w"" more peo- 
ple, you wold doe well to grant free passage to passengers for some 
small tyme for many would be willing to come y' are not able to pay 
their passage, pray send us a minister quallified according to the 
Church of England, and an able councellor to end controversies 
amongst us and put us in the right way of the managem' of yo' coll 
— we hope now the worst is past if you please to stand by us " etc.^ 

Dr. Henry Woodward, who had been found at Nevis 
and Avas with the expedition when Sir John Yeamans left 
it at Bermuda, writes to Sir John on the same day that 
O'Sullivan writes to Lord Ashley (10th of September), 
excusing himself for not having written since his Honor 
left Bermuda for Barbadoes, and he with the others set 
forward for the main, and tells of a country he had dis- 
covered, so delicious, pleasant, and fruitful, that, were it 
cultivated, it doubtless would prove a second paradise. He 
describes it as lying west by north fourteen days' travel 
after the Indian manner of marching. ^ He had formed 
a league with the Emperor of this land of Chufytachygs 
and of all the petty " cassiks" between the Emperor and 
themselves, and so upon his return, the Carolina being 
still absent on her voyage to Virginia and provisions run- 
ning low, he had been enabled to procure provisions from 
the natives. He tells of the threat of invasion by the 

1 Shaftesbury Papers; Colonial Records of N'o. Ca., vol. T, 207. 

2 Supposed to be the land of Cofacliiqui, visited by De Soto in 1540, 
near or upon the sources of the Savannah River, where the States of 
North and South Carolina and Georgia border upon each other. 



138 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Spaniards, which he conceived was designed in the hope 
of interce^^ting the Carolina on her return from Virginia, 
yet it pleased God the ship arrived safely with her most 
convenient supply.^ 

Governor Sayle's health, from his great age and the 
fatigue and exposure incident to the settlement of the 
colony, soon failed. On the 30th of September he exe- 
cuted a will whereby, declaring himself weak in body, but 
(blessed be God) in perfect mind and memory, he devised 
"his mansion house and Town Lot in Albemarle Point to 
his eldest son Nathaniel Sayle." HLe lived, however, 
until the March following, when he died, aged about 
eighty years. 2 He was authorized by his commission, Avitli 
the advice and approbation of his Council, to nominate a 
deputy to succeed him in case he should die or depart 
from the province, Avho should act as Governor until the 
pleasure of the Proprietors should be known. ^ On the 
morning of the 4th of March, finding his strength failing, 
but in full possession of his senses, he sent for his Council 
and nominated Joseph West as his successor under this 
power. The nomination was approved, and upon his 
death West assumed the government.* 

The death of the Duke of Albemarle had preceded Gov- 
ernor Sayle's a few months. Lord Ashley writes to West 
on the 1st of November, that the present Palatine is Lord 
John Berkeley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Avho has suc- 
ceeded the Duke of Albemarle, deceased.^ But his Lord- 
ship was not regularly admitted as such until the 20th of 
January, 1669-70. ^ 

1 Shaftesbury Papers ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 208. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 96 ; Appendix, 385. 
^ Ihid.,UO, 341. 

"^Shaftesbury Papers; Calendar State Papers (Sainsbury), London, 
1889, 472 ; Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 375. 
^ Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 313. 
« Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 180. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 139 

The Council organized by Sayle continued to govern 
the colony until tlie Proprietor's ship, the Blessing, 
brought further instruction in August, 1670. Captain 
Halsted, the master, was, by these instructions, upon 
reaching the Ashley, first to deliver eight small guns with 
their carriages to the Governor and Council, and then 
with all convenient speed to procure a loading of timber 
staves and other commodities suitable for the market at 
Barbadoes, to which he was to sail as soon as he secured 
his freight. During the lading of his vessel he was to 
take a strict and particular account of the stores which 
had been brought out by West as storekeeper, also of the 
cargo from Virginia and the provisions received from Ber- 
muda. West and Braine, while at Bermuda, had drawn 
on Mr. Colleton for 12,000 pounds of sugar, and had 
since drawn on him for a similar amount. Captain Hal- 
sted was to inquire in what this sugar was laid out, also 
for the beef and flour Mr. Colleton had sent. He was to 
take a receipt of Mr. West for the cargo he was to 
deliver. If he had time during the lading of the ship, he 
was to take a view of the country, especially of Ashley 
River, to seek a healthy highland convenient to set out a 
town, as high up as a ship could well be carried, and to do 
the same in Wando and also " Sewa River." He was to 
inquire concerning the healthfulness, richness, and other 
properties of the soil, especially whether the country pro- 
duced timber for masts. As soon as his vessel Avas laded, 
he was to sail for Bridge Town, Barbadoes, there to dis- 
pose of the timber upon the best terms, consulting Sir 
John Yeamans and Mr. Thomas Colleton as to the best 
course for securing passengers for Ashley River, which 
was to be the main purpose of his voyage thither. At 
Barbadoes he was also to inquire about those bills charged 
upon them by Mr. Colleton. As soon as he had secured 



140 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

passengers, he was to sail again for the Ashley River and, 
delivering them there, to sail to Virginia, and then to lay 
out the produce of the rum and sugar he was to take in at 
Barbadoes, in cattle which he was to take back to the Ash- 
ley. His instructions then provided for another voyage 
to Barbadoes with lumber, the proceeds of which he was to 
invest in a cargo fit for the Bahamas, where he was also 
to seek passengers back to the Ashley. In all his trips to 
any place in the West Indies he was enjoined to remember 
that the chief employment of his ship should be to carry 
people to their plantation on the Ashley, and that traffic 
was to be subservient to this purpose.^ 

Captain Halsted also brought out with him a set of 
laws, styled ''Temporary Laws," which the Proprietors 
had adopted to be administered until there was a sufficient 
number of inhabitants to warrant the enforcement of the 
Fundamental Constitutions in all particulars ; but these 
Temporary Laws did but little to relieve the situation. 
The officers and machinery of the government retained 
were out of all proportion to the numbers of the colony. 
The government as prescribed Avas still absurdly top-heavy. 
For a colony at first of not more than 200, and which in 
two years did not double its numbers, it was still proposed 
to maintain a Grand Council, Parliament, and numerous 
officers of the highest grade known to European govern- 
ments. The Palatine was to name the Governor, and each 
Lord Proprietor a deputy, which deputies, and an equal 
number of others chosen by the Parliament, should con- 
tinue to be counsellors until the Proprietors should order 
a new choice or the country be so peopled as to be capable 
of the grand model of government. When Landgraves 
or Caciques should be created by the Proprietors, so many 
of the eldest of them as should be resident in the province 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. ("Rivers), Appendix, 359-362. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 141 

as would equal the number of the Lords Proprietors' depu- 
ties should be added to the Council, so that the nobility 
should have a share in the government. The Governor 
with the Lords Proprietors' deputies, the Landgraves, and 
Caciques (of the Council), and those chosen by the Parlia- 
ment were to be a Grand Council and have all the power 
and authority of such under the constitutions and of 
other courts until they should be evicted. Besides these 
there were to be a Chief Justice, who should appoint a 
Chief Marshal, a Chancellor, Treasurer, High Steward, 
High Chamberlain, Admiral, Secretary, Receiver, Sur- 
veyor, Register, and Marshal of the admiralty. 

To suit the beginning of the government and to prevent 
the taking up great tracts of land sooner than they could 
be settled, it was provided that until by the increase of 
the inhabitants parts of seventy-two colonies should be 
possessed by the people, each Proprietor should have but 
three seigniories and each Landgrave and Cacique but one 
barony. Lords of baronies and manors Avere to be required 
to have each upon his barony thirty persons and upon 
his manor fifteen within seven years after the date of his 
grant. 

To these provisions were added two others. First, 
that no Indian upon any occasion or pretence whatsoever 
was to be made a slave or without his own consent be 
carried out of the country. Second, a provision for keep- 
ing full the number of the deputies of the Proprietors in 
the Council by directing how vacancies should be supplied.^ 
Notice was brought at the same time that Mr. James 
Carteret, Sir John Yeamans, and Mr. John Locke had 
been made Landgraves. ^ The Royal charter, as we have 
pointed out, empowered the Proprietors to confer titles 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 351, 353. 

2 lUd., 103 ; Appendix, 368. 



142 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAIlOLmA 

only " upon sucli of the inlia})itants of the province " as 
they shoukl think fit ; but here we see them in tlie very 
outset making persons who had never even been in the 
colony of Carolina Landgraves. Captain Halsted was also 
instructed to tell the settlers, with reference to the supply 
of provisions which he carried to them, that the Proprietors 
had " been so much out of purse " for their good that it 
was expected of them in return to be ''fair and punctual" 
in repaying what they had got ; " upon which fair dealing 
of them will depend the continuation of our supplies." 

We cannot refrain from remarking, observes Rivers, 
that the " true and absolute lords " of the immense region 
of Carolina, with all its mines, quarries, and fisheries, whose 
object was declared to be the diffusion of the Christian 
religion among those who knew not God, must now have 
appeared to the colonists to abandon their dignity and 
best policy for sordid calculations. Instead of the Gospel, 
the Indians were offered only glass beads ; and the needy 
colonists, who were yet struggling to maintain themselves, 
were required to repay what had been granted them (with 
ten per cent interest) by preparing cargoes of timber " at 
moderate rates." Their Lordships were already " so much 
out of purse " for their benefit that unless punctual pay- 
ment should be made, the settlers should expect from 
them no ammunition or fish-hooks, blankets or provisions. 
At the same time a nobility was thrust upon them, the 
first set of the " unalterable " Fundamental Constitutions 
were repudiated and another set with essential alterations 
substituted, and numerous laws established without the con- 
currence of the people as the charter provided, and to which 
they were required to yield an unmurmuring obedience. 

All these circumstances, however, were not yet known 
in the infant colony, and comparative harmony prevailed 
through the prudent management of Governor West, who 



Under the propkietary government 143 

looked rather to the necessities by which he was surrounded 
than to the phms and theories that emanated from the 
other side of the Atlantic.^ 

The colony increased but slowly. The Carolina Packet^ 
having returned from Virginia, sailed again for Barbadoes 
in September, 1670. Upon her arrival there. Major Kings- 
land, Thomas Colleton, and Sir John Yeamans issued a 
proclamation stating that the Proprietors had provided 
the vessel for the transportation of such people, with their 
servants, negroes, and utensils, as would be ready to depart 
in thirty days. They promised that each person who had 
underwritten 1000 pounds of muscovado sugar towards de- 
fraying the expenses of Captain Hilton's voyage of dis- 
covery in 1664 would have lands allotted to him. Those 
who were minded to go, but unable to pay their own passage, 
would be transported upon their agreeing, within two years 
after their arrival, to pay 500 pounds of merchantable 
tobacco, cotton, or ginger, or of whatever they should first 
produce. Mr. John Strode and Mr. Thomas Colleton 
also fitted out a vessel of their own, the John and Thomas^ 
and made great exertions to procure emigrants. The 
Carolina sailed from Barbadoes early in 1671, with sixty- 
four new settlers, and the John and Thomas took to the 
Ashley forty-two more. Among the latter was Captain 
Godfrey, who had been a deputy in the Council in Barba- 
does and who went out upon the persuasion of Sir John 
Yeamans. He took with him five men, — hands, as they 
were called, — also Mr. Gray, overseer to Sir John, who 
carried ten able men, most of them carpenters and sawyers.^ 
There were also of the party Captain Thomson and Mr. 
Culpepper. These, Stephen Bull writes to Lord Ashley, 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 104, 105. 

2 Calendar State Papers., Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 313, 
338, 344, 432. 



144 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

were all settled within five days, as close together as con- 
venient. The greatest distance that any person or family 
is seated, he says, is less than two miles either up or 
down the river from the town. In August, 1671, the 
Blessing brought out several families from England and, 
sailing at once for New York, returned in December with 
a company of emigrants from the Dutch settlement of 
Nova Belgia, which had recently passed under English 
rule. The ship Phcenix also brought a number of families 
from the same place. The principal of these new-comers 
was Mr. Michael Smith with whom a committee of council 
were directed to lay off a town to be named James Town, 
the houses in which should be twenty feet long and fifteen 
feet broad at least. It was ordained that in future a list 
of all immigrants should be recorded in the Secretary's 
office and that captains of vessels should give bond not to 
carry off any of the inhabitants without a special license. 
Before the furnishing of such list and bond, no vessel 
could land any part of its cargo. ^ 

On the 20th of January following, 1671-72, Joseph Dal- 
ton. Secretary of the colony, writes to Lord Ashley : '' By 
our records it appears that 337 men and women 62 children 
or persons under 16 years of age is the full number of 
persons who have arrived in the country ^w, and since the 
first fleet out of England to this day, whereof 43 men 2 
women 3 children are dead, and 16 absent so as there now 
remains 263 men able to bear arms 69 women, 59 children 
or persons under 16 years of age.""^ 

With tlie Temporar}^ Laws, a model of a town was also 
sent, referring to which Oldmixon, writing in 1708, causti- 
cally observes : " It will be well if the people of Carolina 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 100. 

2 Calendar State Papers, Coloniah London, 1880, 736 ; Year Book 
City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 370; Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 100. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETAKY GOVERNMENT 145 

are able to build 100 years hence; but the Proprietaries as 
appears by their constitutions and instructions to the Gov- 
ernors thought 'twas almost as easy to build towns as to 
draw schemes."^ Paying no attention to the model, and 
not even regarding the instructions of the Proprietors to 
the Governor and Council that in the hrst town the houses 
should be built so that the guns of the fort might com- 
mand all the streets, it appears that the land was promis- 
cuously taken up and occupied as a town without any 
regard to its form or convenience. As early as the 1st of 
November, 1670, Lord Ashley wrote to West that he was 
to take notice that Ashley River had been so named by 
Sandford, and was still so to be called, and that the town 
as now planted out is to be called '' Charles Town." But 
it was not until the 1st of September, 1671, that the name 
appears to have been adopted. 2 

In order to provide for the accommodation of the newly 
arrived emigrants, the Governor and Council, on the 5th of 
September, 1671, directed the Surveyor General to lay out 
a town on Stono Creek, adjoining land of Mr. Thomas 
Gray, near Charles Town, containing twenty-five acres, of 
which five acres were to be reserved for a churchyard. 
For the Dutch from New York, on the 20th of December, a 
town was ordered to be laid out on a creek to the south 
of Stono, to contain thirty acres. The place was soon 
abandoned, the settlers spreading themselves over the 
neighboring country. Lands were soon taken up on the 
east side of the Ashley, and settlements were formed in 

1 Oldmixon, Carolina (Carroll's Coll.), 405. 

2 Calendar State Papers, Colonial, London, 1889, 124, 195, 255, 
During the Proprietary Government the name of the town was written 
thus, Charles Town. During the Royal Government it was written 
Charlestown ; and since the incorporation of the city, after the Revo- 
lution (1783), it has been written Charleston. 

L 



146 HIISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLmA 

various parts of the neighborhood. On the 24:th of October 
commissioners were appointed by the Grand Council to 
examine the banks of the Ashley and the Wando, or 
Cooper, River, '' and to make a return of what places 
might be most convenient to situate towns upon, that the 
same might be wholly reserved for these and other like 
uses." And again, January 13, 1671-72, Captain John 
Godfrey, Captain Thomas Gray, and Mr. Maurice Mathews 
were appointed to so view Wando River and there to mark 
such place or places as they should think most convenient 
for the situation of a town or towns, and to report thereof 
Avith all convenient speed ; and it was ordered that no 
person should run out or mark any lands on the Wando 
or any of its creeks until such report should be made. 
The colonists were thus exploring and examining the 
country around before they finally settled upon the per- 
manent location of the town.^ 

While they were thus engaged, the Indians began to be 
troublesome. The tribe of Kussoes, inhabiting northeast 
of the Combahee River, were the first among the neigh- 
boring tribes to assume an attitude of open hostility. 
They and their confederates in the small tribes began in 
the summer of 1671 to withdraw themselves from their 
usual familiar intercourse with the colonists, and to dis- 
courage other Indians who were friendly and in the habit 
of visiting the town for the jDurpose of traffic. The Kus- 
soes declared themselves to be in favor of the Spaniards, 
with whose aid they intended to destroy the English 
settlements. Day by day their behavior became more 
insolent, and on every slight occasion they threatened the 
lives of the whites, whose property and provisions they 
looked upon as objects of plunder. Every unguarded 
farm suffered from their nightly depredations. More 
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 12, 13. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 147 

open acts of hostility were only prevented by the constant 
vigilance of the settlers. 

On the 27th of September the Governor and Council 
declared war against the Kussoes and their confederates. 
Commissions were granted to Captain Godfrey and Cap- 
tain Gray. Two Kussoes who were then in town were 
immediately seized and placed in custody. So accus- 
tomed, says Rivers, were the colonists to be on the 
alert and to bear weapons in hand to protect themselves 
from surrounding dangers that within seven days com- 
panies were formed, the enemy's country invaded and 
surprised ; many of the Indians were taken captive and 
ordered to be transported from Carolina, unless the remain- 
ing Kussoes sued for peace and paid such a ransom for the 
prisoners as should be thought reasonable by the Grand 
Council.^ 

In the winter of 1671 a scarcity of provisions rendered 
it probable that the settlers would suffer great distress. 
Governor West wisely ordered that all the supplies in the 
store of the Proprietors should be frugally distributed to 
the needy ; that all occupations, except those of carpenters 
and smiths, should be suspended for the planting and 
gathering of a crop of provisions ; that in future no one 
should be entitled to assistance from the public stores who 
had not two acres well planted with corn or peas for every 
person in his family ; and that slothful and loitering per- 
sons should be put in charge of the industrious planters 
for the purpose of working for their own maintenance 
and the benefit of the community. 

It will serve, says Rivers, to exhibit the condition and 
progress of the colony during West's first administration 
to notice the legislative measures taken by him with the 
Grand Council. 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 1 00. 



148 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

October^ 1671. The regulation of the secretary fees ; 
the rates and "scantings" of merchantable pipe staves, 
requiring the appointment by Council of one or more 
" viewers " to examine all pipe staves when " any difference 
should happen upon payment or exchange between party 
and party in the province of Carolina," and fees allowed 
for the performance of such duties ; the modelling of the 
proceedings of Council in the determining of differences 
between party and party. 

December, 1671. Acts relating to masters trading with 
servants and servants purloining their masters' goods ; 
prescribing how long servants coming from England were 
to serve, and how long servants coming from Barbadoes 
were likewise to serve from their respective arrivals ; 
that none may retail any drink without license ; for the 
speedy payment of the Lords Proprietors' debts ; and pre- 
scribing " at what rates artificers and laborers shall work 
therein," i.e. the province. 

This last is the first act of Parliament we find to be rati- 
fied by the Proprietors in England. ^ No courts were yet 
established, nor were there any laAvyers in the colony, but 
litigation had already begun, and justice was roughly ad- 
ministered by the Grand Council. Each member of this 
body was required to swear that as a councillor he would 
assist the Governor to the best of his skill and ability ; that 
he would do equal justice to the rich and to the poor ; 
that he would '' not give or be of councill for favor or affec- 
tion in a difference or quarrell" before the Council, but in 
all things demean himself as equity and justice required, 
observing the rules and directions of the Lords Proprietors 
and the laws of England and of the province ; and that he 
would not communicate the secrets or transactions of the 
Governor and Council without authority. ^ 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 106, 107. 2 n^ia., Appendix, 370. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 149 

The first case of litigation in tlie colony of which we 
have a record was that upon the petition of John Norton 
and Originall Jackson against Mr. Maurice Mathews, Mr. 
Thomas Gray, and Mr. William Owen. On August 28, 
1671, it was ordered that the petitioners should appear 
before the Governor and Council upon Saturday, Sep- 
tember 9, peremptorily to prosecute the complaint against 
the defendants. When that day came, upon hearing the 
petition, both parties having referred themselves to the 
determination of the Governor and Council, it was de- 
cided that the said John Norton and Originall Jack- 
son should have sixteen pieces of cedar timber desired 
and one piece of cedar timber more claimed by the 
defendants. The Governor and Council heard another 
case this day and decided that Henry Hughes should pay 
one bushel of corn to Robert Donne for his labor and 
pains on the plantation of the said Henry Hughes. 
Having settled these cases, the Council took up the ad- 
dress of two servants of Mr. John Manerich (^Maverichf)^ 
and considering how industrious and useful these servants 
had been to the colony, for their encouragement ordered 
that each of them should have ten acres of land near the 
town. In November Mr. Anthon}^ Churne has a complaint 
against the now notorious Mr. William Owen, but the 
difference is referred by the Grand Council to the arbi- 
tration of Mr. Edward Mathews and Mr. John Culpepper. 
Mr. Henry Hughes is also again in court ; this time with 
a serious complaint against Thomas Screman, gentleman, 
" for that the said Thomas Screman upon the of Octo- 
ber 1671 at Charles Town did feloniously take and carry 
away from the said Henry Hughes, one Turkey Cock of 
the price of tenn pence of lawful money contrary to the 
peace of our sovereign Lord the King," etc. It is to be 
observed that in this the first indictment in the Pala- 



150 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tine province of Carolina the offence is laid as contra 
pacem domini i^egis^ and not against the peace of the 
Palatine, as might have been under such a government.^ 
The Grand Council found gentleman Screman guilty, 
and without jury adjudged him to be stript naked to the 
waist and to receive nine lashes by a whip, to be admin- 
istered by the hand of Joseph Oldys, "who is adjudged by 
the Grand Council," the sentence proceeded, " to be stript 
naked to his waist to perform the same for that the said 
Joseph Oldys knowing of the felonious act aided said 
Screman and endeavored to conceal the offence." But 
the Council did not stay its hand here. It turned out in 
the evidence that Robert Donne, who had come out as a 
servant to Stephen Bull, but who had been one of those 
elected as a member of the Council at Port Royal, and to 
whom Henry Hughes had two months before been required 
to pay a bushel of corn for services rendered and now 
a Captain Lieutenant, had nevertheless been "comforting 
aiding and assisting the said Screman to commit the 
said fact " ; whereupon the Grand Council ordered him to 

appear on the of December at tlie head of the company 

whereof he was Captain Lieutenant, with his sword on, 
and there to have his sword taken from him by the 
Marshal, and to be cashiered from his command. Dennis 
Mahown, servant to Mr. John Cole, for having twice 
run away from his master, attempting to escape to the 
Spaniards, was ordered to receive thirty-nine lashes upon 
his naked back. Captain Thomas Gray makes complaint 
against Sir John Yeamans, Baronet, " for felling and 
carrying away severall quantityes from a certaine parcell 
of land neare the Towne belonging to him the said Capt. 
Gray. It is also ordered by the Grand Councill aforesaid 
that an injunction be issued out under the Governor's 
1 Blackstone's Com.^ vol. I, 117. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT , 151 

hand," etc.^ Thus were equity and hiw, civil and criminal 
proceedings, promiscuously administered and perhaps with 
as much substantial justice as could have been by a 
regularly organized court. 

It had been rumored, even before Sayle's death, that 
Sir John Yeamans would be appointed Governor by the 
Lords Proprietors, and the report was received with great 
disfavor. The day before the Governor's death West 
writes to Lord Ashley that he lies in a ver}^ weak con- 
dition, and past all hope of recovery. He hopes that an 
honest and able Governor may speedily be sent over — 
one that desires to serve God above all worldly interest. 
" If Sir John Yeamans comes amongst them again, it is to 
be feared a hopeful settlement will soon be elapsed." ^ 
The Council wrote on the 4th, announcing Sayle's death and 
informing the Proprietors of their choice of Joseph West to 
be Governor until they learn their Lordships' pleasure, and 
add that it had been hinted that their Honors had designed 
to commissionate Sir John Yeamans again as Governor ; 
they had good reason to believe the contrary, '' for it doth 
breed a very great dissatisfaction to the people."^ 

Sir John, having abandoned the colony at Cape Fear, 
and having again abandoned the colony destined for Port 
Royal and left it at Bermuda, had now come to Carolina 
and was at present on the Ashley, felling timber. He had 
brought with him from Barbadoes his negro slaves, — the 
first introduced into Carolina, — and had l)uilt a house in 
the town. We shall soon see how his presence affected 
the condition of the colony ; for the present the extracts 
we have given from the records of the Grand Council 
enables us to gauge somewhat the material and social 
condition of the colony at this time. 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 371, 377. 

2 Calendar State Papers., Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 428. 

3 Ibid., 433. 



CHAPTER VII 

1671-74 

It was the observation of a great political philosopher 
that so deeply seated is the tendency to conflict between 
the different interests or portions of a communit}^ that 
parties would be formed, even though it would be possible 
to find a community where the people were all of the same 
pursuits, placed in the same condition of life, and in every 
respect so situated as to be without inequalitj^ of con- 
dition or diversity of interest. ^ The truth of this was 
singularly illustrated in the planting of Carolina. It 
might have been expected, observes another writer, that 
these adventurers, who were all embarked on the same 
design, would be animated by one spirit and zealous to 
maintain harmony and peace among themselves, for they 
had all the same hardships to encounter and the same 
enemies to fear ; yet the reverse took place. ^ But while 
there doubtless existed the strongest motives to unity and 
harmony among these pioneers in the province, — motives 
of interest and of apprehension of danger which pressed on 
all alike, — unfortunately there was added to the natural 
tendency to the formation of parties in all communities, 
the irresistible influence of the extraordinary forms of 
government under which they had embarked. 

Not only were the Governor and Council sworn to the 

1 A Disqnisitio)} on Government^ Calhoun's works, vol. I, 17. 

2 Hewatt, vol. 1, 75. 

162 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 153 

observance of the instructions of the Lords Proprietors and 
to the enforcement of the Fundamental Constitutions, as far 
as practicable, but these Constitutions, as the unalterable 
form and rule of government, had been engrossed on 
parchment and after having been signed and sealed by 
the Governor, were required to be subscribed by every 
person before he was admitted to take up lands in the 
province.^ These instructions to the Governor and Coun- 
cil, as well as the Fundamental Constitutions so solemnly 
adopted, upon the test of actual experiment were found 
to be utterly impracticable in application. Here in the 
very beginning of the colony was there an artificial as 
well as natural foundation of two parties. What more 
certain cause of difference could there be than a written 
constitution incapable of enforcement ? Poor old Gov- 
ernor Sayle, weak in mind as well as body, accustomed 
only to the command of a ship under instructions from 
his employers, finds himself confronted by the first " strict 
constructionists " of Carolina, pointing out to him tlie 
inconsistencies and absurdities of his orders. Sayle suc- 
cumbed to the burden, physical and mental, but the ques- 
tions brought over from Whitehall remained. 

Two parties had already been formed. The Council 
— the government party — finding their instructions 
impracticable, and yet with the responsibility of the 
government upon them, for the present, at least, more 
concerned for the immediate safety and welfare of the 
colonists than for the maintenance of the wild schemes of 
the Proprietors, were inclined to stretch their powers. ^ 
The Owen and Scrivener party on the other hand, from 
whatever motives actuated, were endeavoring to hold the 
Governor and Council to a strict compliance with the terms 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 418. 
^ Ibid, 105. 



154 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the parchment they had been required to subscribe. 
These divisions had already arisen among the colonists 
from England. There was another element in the com- 
position of the colony now asserting itself, of Avhich the 
Governor was very jealous, i.e. the Barbadian immi- 
grants, bringing with them as they did colonial experi- 
ence, habits, and customs, which had grown out of, and 
were more practically adapted to, the condition of colonial 
society — rather than the fine-spun theories and grand 
governmental structures of a philosopher and doctrinaire. 
The immigrants from England were all strangers to the 
business of settling plantations in the new country. The 
Colletons, Sir John Yeamans, Captain Henry Braine, Dr. 
Henry Woodward, Captains Godfrey and Gray, old colo- 
nists, looked down upon the new-comers to America as 
novices in colonial life and government, and were dissatis- 
fied with their management of the colony. It was by the 
Governor and the Council's '' ill contriving," they said, 
"that neither Mr. Rivers nor the rest had been brought 
away from " St. Augustine. ^ Braine had written before 
Sayle's death that he would pawn his life that Sayle '' is 
one of the unfittest men in the Avorld for the place," and 
" his being Governor keeps our settlement very chargeable 
to their Lordships. But though the Governor is crazy yet 
if there Avere a Avise Council, or three or four men of 
reason, planters^ Avho kncAv what did belong to settle such 
a country, it Avould be to the good of the country and their 
Lordships' interests." 

We do not knoAV exactly when Sir John Yeamans 
arrived in Carolina. On the 15th of November, 1670, he 
writes from Barbadoes to the Lords Proprietors, sending 
" 12 cedar planks as the first fruits of that glorious prov- 
ince," i.e. Carolina. He Avas still there in the early part 

1 Calendar State Papers^ Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 343, 345. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 155 

of the year 1671, superintending the transportation of the 
immigrants he had secured. And Lord Ashley addressed 
him there in April, thanking him '' for the first fruits of 
their plantation at Ashley from his hands." ^ As late as 
May the Proprietors instructed Captain Halsted if he 
traded at Barbadoes to consult Yeamans there.^ It ap- 
pears, however, from a letter of Governor West to Lord 
Ashley that he had arrived in the colony, at the latest, 
early in July, and had expected to have been at once 
recognized as Governor by reason of his being a Land- 
grave. West writes that within two or three days of his 
arrival Sir John retired to his country house disgusted 
"that the people did not incline to salute him Governor." 
He says that as more people had arrived, on the 8tli of 
July, he. West, had summoned all the freemen and re- 
quested them to elect twenty persons to be of the Parlia- 
ment, which was done in three days ; that Sir John was 
chosen Speaker, but that a dispute arose about choosing a 
clerk, and whether West was made Governor according 
to the Lords Proprietors' directions. Sir John also made 
the point, he said, that there must be three deputies be- 
sides the Governor, and that it would be in vain for them 
to proceed unless West would surrender his power as 
Governor and make the third deputy. It will be remem- 
bered that the five original deputies were West, Scrivener, 
Bull, Bowman, and O'Sullivan. Bowman had not come 
out, and the Council had suspended Scrivener, so that to 
comply with the Proprietors' instructions requiring at 
least three deputies to constitute a quorum. West must 
be counted as well a deputy as Governor. West would 
not adopt Sir John's view, but dissolved the Parlia- 
ment ; Sir John and his party went away much dissatis- 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 492. 

2 Ibid., 516. 



156 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

fied. West writes that Yeamans's conduct was much 
resented by the people, who began to murmur tliat " Sir 
John intended to make this a Cape Fear settlement." ^ 

Five days after, West summoned the Parliament again 
to elect five councillors ; when Sir John, says West, 
preached the doctrine that in all elections those who will 
stand at the greatest distance from the Governor should 
be chosen. 2 We have the record of this Parliament, the 
first held in the province. It was held on the 25th of 
August, 1671, at Charles Town, upon Ashley River, and 
the five persons chosen to represent the people were j\lr. 
Thomas Gray, Mr. Maurice Mathews, Lieutenant Henry 
Hughes, Mr. Christopher Portman, and Mr. Ralph Mar- 
shall. These were presented to the Governor and the Lords 
Proprietors' deputies as members of the Grand Council for 
the people. At a meeting of the Governor and Council 
on the 28th, there were sitting and present the Governor, 
Sir John Yeamans, Captain John Godfrey, Mr. AYilliam 
Owen, Mr. Thomas Gray, Mr. John Foster, Mr. Maurice 
Mathews, Mr. Henry Hughes, and j\Ir. Ralph Marshall. ^ 
The Barbadians had already acquired position. Sir John 
Yeamans appears as deputy for Lord Berkeley, John 
Godfrey for Earl Craven, and Thomas Gray represents 
the people in the Council. John Coming, Halsted's 
mate, writes to Sir John Colleton that the Barbadians 
endeavor to rule all.* They had joined Owen, Mathews, 
and Sullivan against Governor West.^ Lord Ashley 
was the recipient of complaints from all parties. West, 
Bull, Braine, Godfrey, and Dalton all complain of O'Sul- 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 612. 

2 Ilnd. 

3 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 11. 

4 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 277, 
664. 

5 Ibid., 279. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 157 

livan as incompetent as a Surveyor ; some of them object 
to his conduct.^ Yeamans charges that West is proud and 
peevish, and will not call a Parliament for fear his election 
or actions should be questioned. ^ Halsted says that West 
is a person faithful and stout, but no good Governor; that 
Yeamans is disaffected and too selfish.^ Gray accuses 
West of turning Sciivener and Mathews out of the Coun- 
cil, and declaring he cared not what became of the govern- 
ment. Lord Ashley replies to them all, addressing each 
as his "- very affectionate friend." John Locke's con- 
nection with Carolina Avas not only as the author of the 
Fundamental Constitutions, but it is well known that 
he took a deep interest in the settling of the colony. 
Living at Exeter House with Lord Ashley as his secre- 
tary, he continued to attend to its affairs, and took great 
part in its management during Shaftesbury's rule. Many 
of the letters in the letter book of the Shaftesbury col- 
lection are in his handwriting, and it may be inferred 
that these of Lord Ashley were all written by him.^ 

The Fundamental Constitutions provided that the eldest 
of the Lords Proprietors who should be personally present 
in Carolina should, of course, be the Palatine's deputy; 
and if no Proprietor be present, then the eldest of the 
Landgraves. Sir John Yeamans now asserted his right 
under this provision. At a meeting of the Grand Council 
on the 14th of December he claimed that as he was a Land- 
grave — and the only Landgrave present, — he was there- 
fore Vice Palatine, and consequently Governor of the 
province ; ^ it does not appear, however, that he could get 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 259, 
278, 329, 472, 736. 

2 Ibid., 278, 664. 

3 Ibid., 278. 

^ Ibid. , Preface, xxi. 
6 Ibid., 281. 



158 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

even the support of the Barbadians in the Council for the 
claim, which was certainly not without foundation. On 
the contrary, the Council " resolved and advised (nemine 
contra dieenti) that it is not safe or warrantable to re- 
move the government as it is at present, until a signal 
nomination from the Palatine or further orders or di- 
rections be received from the Lords Proprietors." ^ 

Yeamans had in fact, however, already been commis- 
sioned as Governor. His commission is dated August 
21, 1671 ; but it was not sent until September 18, when 
Lord Ashley writes he is glad to know that Sir John 
is in Carolina, and shall expect good success to their 
new settlement when it shall be countenanced and con- 
ducted by so judicious and worthy a person. He has, 
therefore, sent him a commission, and relies upon his 
being firm and industrious in settling the government. ^ 
To Mr. West, "his very affectionate friend," he writes 
December 16, explaining that it was through no per- 
sonal dislike or disrespect to him that Sir John Yeamans 
was made Governor, but the nature of the government, 
which required that a Landgrave should be preferred to 
any commoner. ^ As a reward for West's services, the 
Proprietors created him a Cacique, made him Registrar 
of Writings, and required that not only the titles of 
the Proprietors, but that all deeds amongst the colonists, 
should be recorded, as provided by the Fundamental Con- 
stitutions ; no deed to be good without registry.* 

To another State has been given the credit for first 
devising a system of recording deeds and mortgages.^ 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 108; Appendix, 377. 

2 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889,606, 630. 
8 Ibid., 695. 

4 Ibid., 721, 865, 870. 

^ Massachusetts. The Puritan in England, Scotland, and America 
(Campbell), vol. I, 75 et seq. The recording of ordinary conveyances 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 159 

We here see the registry system was adopted in Carolina 
with the very inception of its settlement. The truth is 
that from the very necessities of the occasion a registration 
of the surveys and grants of land in the new country was 
indispensable. The Domesday Book of William the Con- 
queror was the registration of the surveys and grants of 
the lands of England made by him, and to that ancient 
record must the title of all lands be traced. Once the 
redistribution of the lands in England was made and 
recorded, the metes and bounds were preserved by the 
people who were then settled upon them, and when any 
questions arose as to their location, they were settled by 
the ''perambulation" or "viewing" by the parishioners 
or neighbors. The boundaries in England were thus 
perpetually preserved by custom and tradition ; but in 
settling a new country, especially one cut up by rivers and 
swamps, the survey and map alone could locate and de- 
began at an early period in Virginia, In October, 1626, the rule was laid 
down by the General Court that the documents in all sales of land in 
Virginia should be brought to Jamestown and enrolled in that court in 
the space of twelve months and a day following the date of each. There 
are many records of conveyances between private parties prior to 1630. 
Economic Hist, of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century (Bruce), 1896, vol. 
I, 570. There is nothing new in the American idea of registration. Even 
before the conquest in England, publicity of transfer was secured by 
a system of record in the shire or church book. After the conquest, the 
publicity continued for a time in Domesday Book and for some purjDoses 
by the Statute of Enrolments, 27 Henry VIII, c. 16. A registry was 
established for the Bedford Level in the same year that the first charter 
of Carolina to the Proprietors was granted, 1663. There were frequent 
efforts to establish a general registration law in England. Lord Keeper 
Guilford warmly advocated a registration system, but it was opposed 
by Lord Chief Justice Hale. North's Lives of the Norths, vol. I, 224. 
There was, however, a great prejudice in England against the system. 
Blackstone observed that however plausible such provisions might appear, 
it was doubted by very competent judges whether more disputes were not 
caused in those counties in which the system prevailed, by inattention 
and omissions of parties, than had been prevented. 2 Com., c. 20. 



160 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

scribe the grant, which was defined merely by imaginary 
lines. There could be no such thing as the actual delivery 
of possession of lands occupied only by Indians and wild 
beasts ; hence again it became necessary to record not 
only the (n-iginal surveys, but all transfers of the rights 
granted under them. The office of Surveyor General 
was also therefore of great consequence, especially under 
the Fundamental Constitutions, which required the whole 
province to be surveyed and laid out in seigniories, 
baronies, and colonies. Captain Florence O'Suliivan 
was the first Surveyor General, but the complaints against 
him were numerous. He was no surveyor, it was said, 
and was charged with ignorance and incompetence, with 
promising much and performing nothing.^ So with the 
commission of Governor to Sir John Yeamans, the Lords 
Proprietors sent out one as Surveyor General to John 
Culpepper, who had come out with him from Barbadoes.^ 
These commissions were issued in December, 1671,^ and 
Culpepper appears to have at once entered upon his duty ; 
for while West was still Governor, Culpepper made a 
rough draught or sketch of the settlement of Charles Town 
for the Proprietors, giving the location of the tracts of land 
and town lots taken up by the colonists. In this plat it 
is to be observed that lie marks a certain tract of 300 
acres as " Land reserved by Governor & Counsell to be 
disposed of at their pleasure, I suppose for a minister or 
governor." 

On April 19, 1672, Sir John Yeamans was proclaimed 
at Charles Town and a proclamation was also immediately 
issued to dissolve " all parliament and parliamentary con- 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 184, 
278, 329, G21, 73G. 

2 Ibid., 688. 

3 Coll Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 98. 



Ui^DER THE PROPKtET'ARY GOVERNMENT 161 

nections heretofore had or made in the province," and all 
the freemen in the colony were summoned to assemble 
on the 20th to elect a new Parliament. Twenty mem- 
bers were accordingly elected, who chose from their num- 
ber, as members of the Grand Council, Stephen Bull, 
Christopher Portman,. Richard Conant, Ralph Marshall, 
and John Robinson. The deputies were Colonel West, 
Captain Tiiomas Gray, Captain John Godfrey, Maurice 
Mathews, and William Owen.^ 

In the letter accompanying his commission. Lord Ashley 
writes to Governor Yeamans recommending him to make 
another port town on the Ashley, and giving him directions 
as to the choice of the ground. The present site was too 
low, it must needs be unhealthy, and would bring dis- 
repute upon their new settlement. He must lay out the 
great port town into regular streets, for, be the buildings 
never so mean and thin at first, yet as the town increases 
in riches and people the void places will be filled up and 
the buildings will grow more beautiful. He recommends 
six score squares of 300 feet each, to be divided one from 
the other by streets and alleys, and that no man should 
have above one of those squares to one house. The 
great street should not be less than 100 or six score feet 
broad ; the lesser streets none less than sixty ; alleys 
eiglit or ten feet. 

The first acts of the new administration were directed 
to the survey and recording of the lands granted to the 
settlers with a view to the more definite claims of quit- 
rent and the introduction of more of the forms of the 
Fundamental Constitutions. Stricter regulations were 
ordained against persons leaving tlie colony. Those who 
should desire to do so were required to set up their names 
in the Secretary's office, and if any person objected to their 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 109. 

M 



162 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

departure he wrote his name within twenty-one days 
beneath the names so set up, and the reasons for his 
objection were heard by the Council before a permission 
for leave could be obtained. On the 27th of June, 1673, 
the Council ordered an extension of the time of advertise- 
ment to six weeks. Such a provision was common to 
the colonies and was intended to prevent debtors from 
absconding. So Halsted writes to Shaftesbury that he 
carries no one from Barbadoes without a ticket.^ It was 
resolved by the Council that for the better safety of the 
settlement the Governor should live in town. This, it is 
supposed, was induced because Sir John Yeamans had 
retired to his country house when the people refused to 
recognize him as Governor upon his arrival. 

In pursuance of his instructions. Governor Yeamans 
proceeded to lay out the site of another town. It so 
happened that the present site of the city of Charleston, — 
the point formed by the confluence of the Kiawha, or Ash- 
ley, and the Wando, or Cooper, River — had been taken up 
by Henry Hughes and John Coming. With Hughes the 
readers of this history are well acquainted. Coming had 
come out as mate of Henry Braine, captain of the 
Carolina. Halsted describes him as a good sailor but 
ambitious. 2 Tradition relates that his conduct having 
been criticised for the loss of a vessel on Charles Town 
bar, which was charged to have been from cowardice, he 
crossed the Atlantic in a longboat, which he raised and 
decked for the purpose to vindicate his courage.^ He 
subsequently became a prosperous planter in the province. 

'^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 110; Calendar State Papers, 
Colonial (Saiiisbury), London, 1889, 320. A similar regulation pre- 
vailed in Virginia. See Bruce's Economic Hist, of Va., vol. II, 367. 

2 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 326. 

3 MSS. of Elias Ball, now in possession of Mr. Isaac Ball of Charleston. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 163 

As early as February 25, 1671-72 Hughes and Coming, 
the latter with his wife Affra, appeared before the Grand 
Council and voluntarily surrendered the half of their 
lands upon Oyster Point, " to be employed in and toward 
the outlaying of a town and commons of pasture there 
intended to be erected. "^ On the 20th of July Governor 
Yeamans by and with the advice of his Council issued the 
following warrant to John Culpepper: — 

"You are forthwith to admeasure and lay out for a town on 
Oyster point all that point of land then formerly allotted for the same 
adding thereto one hundred a)id fifty acres of land or so much thereof 
as you shall find to be proportionable for the said one hundred and 
fifty acres in the breadth of land formerly marked to be laid out for 
Mr. Henry Hughes Mr. John Coming and Affra his now wife, and 
James Robinson estimated to be seven hundred acres," etc. 

Mr. Hughes's land was retained by the Grand Council ; 
Mr. Coming's was released. The town thus laid off 
originally extended no farther west than the present 
Meeting Street, nor farther north than Broad Street, nor 
south than Water Street. The land to the south of the 
town obtained the name of Coming's Point and White 
Point, no doubt from the whiteness of the oyster shells 
upon it. It was not, however, as yet intended to aban- 
don the old town on the Ashley ; for the settlers there 
were then engaged in building a fort which was finished 
in May, 1672, and in June an act was passed for the 
uniform rebuilding of the town. In accordance with 
this act, the old town was laid out anew and was divided 
into sixty-two lots. Those who owned lots gave them up 
and a redistribution was made on the 2 2d of July.^ 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 15. 

2 The following are the names of the persons to whom the lots were 
assigned and the numbers given them. The list is useful as giving the 
names of the principal people then in the colony: Thomas Ingram, No. 
68 ; Samuel West, 31 ; William Owen, 32, 23 ; Captain Henry Braine, 30 ; 



164 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Colonel West, the former Governor, besides being reg- 
ister of writings, was superintendent of the plantation 
and stores of the Proprietors, and thus especially charged 
with the care of their individual interests. In June, 1672, 
he procured an order from the Council that twenty persons 
from the debtors to the Proprietors should furnish ser- 
vants to cut and prepare a cargo of lumber for the Bless- 
ing at its next arrival. Governor Yeamans, on the other 
hand, was entering upon plans which demanded an in- 
creased expenditure of the private resources of the Pro- 
prietors. The colony was placed in a state of security 
against invasion, cannon were mounted at Stono Creek, 
and a '' great gun " was fired at Charles Town on the ap- 
proach of any vessel. The inhabitants were armed and 
six companies were enrolled under Lieutenant Colonel 
Godfrey. Surely these were all legitimate and proper 
expenses to be borne by the owners of a large part of 
the great new Continent, — but the Proprietors, in their 
niggardly conduct, bitterly complained that instead of 

Lieutenant Henry Hughes, 3 ; John Coming, 29 ; Captain Florence O' Sul- 
livan, 5, 6, 26, 27 ; John Williamson, 7 ; Ralph Marshall, 8 ; Captain 
Stephen Bull, 25, 24 ; Captain Joseph Bay ley, 9 ; Sir John Yeamans, 22 ; 
Richard Deyos, 19 ; James Jours, 14 ; Thomas Turpin, 33 ; Priscilla 
Burke, 28 ; Major Thomas Gray, 10 ; John Foster, 11 ; Richard Batin, 
13 ; Henry Wood, 15 ; George Beadon, 40, 20 ; Ensign Hugh Carteret, 18 ; 
Captain George Thomas, bought of William Kennis, 16, 17 ; Captain 
Nathaniel Sayle, 59, 60 ; Thomas Hurt, for his wife, 61 ; the Lords Pro- 
prietors, 50, 51, 52, 53, 62 ; Captain Maurice Mathews, 37, 54 ; Michael 
Smith, 38 ; Thomas Thompson, 55 ; Captain Gyles Hall, 12 ; Thomas and 
James Smith, 41, 57 ; Richard Cole, 42 ; Joseph Dalton,44 ; John Pinkerd, 
36 ; Joseph Pendarvis, 45 ; John Maverick, 43 ; Philip Comerton, number 
not designated, but either 21, 39, 48, 49, which are not stated to have been 
delivered ; Christopher Portman, 4 ; Ensign Henry Prettye, 56 ; Timothy 
Biggs, 34 ; Charles Miller, 46 ; John Culpepper; 35 ; Captain John Robin- 
son, 47; Ensign Boone, 2; and Edward Mathews, 1. See Fragment of 
Journals in Grant Book, 1672-94, Sec. of State's office, Columbia ; Dalcho's 
Ch. Hist., 17, 18; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 128. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 165 

being repaid wliat had already been advanced by them, 
a debt of several thousand pounds had been incurred be- 
fore the end of 1673 and that they were still solicited for 
further aid and a stock of cattle from England. A more 
serious charge against Sir John was that, while the settlers 
could scarcely raise sufficient provisions for their own con- 
sumption, he was buying up the produce of tlie colony and 
exporting it at great gain to the Island of Barbadoes. 

The Proprietors had scarcely commissioned Sir John 
before letters from Carolina arrived, telling how he had 
claimed the government under the Fundamental Constitu- 
tions without waiting their appointment, and of his great 
unpopularity. The Earl of Shaftesbury, to which dignity 
Lord Ashley had just been raised (April 23, 1672), upon 
the receipt of these complaints sends a letter, no doubt 
written by Locke, '' a masterpiece of composition " as it 
has been said,i [^^ which he gently remonstrates with ''his 
very affectionate friend Sir John" and advises him ''not to 
make use of the government put into his hands to revenge 
himself on any who had spoken their apprehensions with 
that freedom which must be allowed in a country wherein 
men are not designed to be oppressed, and where they 
may justly expect equal justice and protection." He had 
too great a value for Sir John's condition and ability, he 
said, not to desire the continuance of a right understand- 
ing between them, and therefore must take the liberty to 
deal freely with him in a matter wherein they were both 
concerned, and to tell him that he could not avoid think- 
ing that the suspicions of those who had expressed some 
fear of his management of the government had some 
ground. His too forward conduct in grasping at the 
government when he first arrived in Carolina, and his 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, Preface, 
xxi. 



166 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

endeavors since to diminish the authority of certain depu- 
ties who had power to represent the Proprietors, had 
even at that distance given some umbrage.^ 

While the Proprietors, on the one hand, were, stingily, 
quarrelling with every expenditure in the colony, on the 
other, their minds were filled with schemes of grandeur 
and magnificence in the government they were attempt- 
ing to settle in the wilds of America. "A debt of several 
thousand pounds " appalled them, even though it was to be 
incurred in laying out and settling hundreds of thousands 
of acres in seigniories, baronies, and manors for Land- 
graves and Caciques. Instead of providing the means 
for colonizing their immense domain even in part, their 
time was spent in drawing on paper grand plans of im- 
aginary and impossible governments, and sending them 
out to be put in operation among a few hundred advent- 
urers who had hardly the means of living. Their legis- 
lative activity was surely extraordinary. 

It will be remembered that Locke's original draft of the 
Fundamental Constitutions of March, 1670, had been modi- 
fied in some particulars, and, thus modified, had been sol- 
emnly adopted on the 20th of July, 1670. To these latter, 
which are known as the first set, and which had been de- 
claimed " sacred and unalterable," the colonists had been 
required to subscribe and swear submission. While they 
had never been adopted by a Parliament which alone could 
give them authority under the charter, they had thus 
been forced upon the people individually. With a deter- 
mination which seems purposed merely to irritate the peo- 
ple, the Proprietors, well aware that this condition of the 
province Avould not, at least yet, admit of the enforce- 
ment of either set, now sent out a printed copy of Locke's 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 861 ; 
Colonial Hecords of No. Ca., vol. I, 212. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 167 

original draft, but to which, it is said, they added the 
dause that appears as Article 96, in the set to be found 
in the first volume of the Statutes of South Carolnia, 
directing the building of churches and the public main- 
tenance of divines of the Church of England, which it 
declared to be the only true and orthodox religion 
The Church of England, as we have before explained, 
was already the established church under the charter ; but, 
not content with the fact, the seven Proprietors who were 
adherents of Episcopacy - Shaftesbury having no predi- 
lection upon the subject ^ _ now required a declaration 
that the Church of England was the only true and ortho- 
dox religion. Locke's original draft, with this inconsistent 
provision imposed upon it, -if so be that Locke did not 
draw it himself, —now becoming known as the Second Set, 
was adopted by the Proprietors on the 26th of June, 
16T2 ; they do not appear, however, to have been received 
by the Governor in Carolina until the 8th of February, 
1673-7L The Parliament refused to recognize them. 

That the Proprietors were well aware that no sub- 
stantial purpose could be effected by this attempt to force 
these Constitutions upon the colony at this time is mani- 
fest, for with them they also sent two other remarkable 
legislative productions. These were termed - Temporary 
Laws" and ^'Agrarian Laws." 

-Since the paucity of nobility," they said, -will not 
permit the Fundamental Constitutions presently to be put 
in practice, it is necessary for the supply of that defect 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 117, 118 ; Appendix, 420. 

2 Bishop Burnet says of Shaftesbury : - He was to religion a Deist at 
best He had the dotage of Astrology about him to a high degree. He 
told me that a Dutch doctor had from the stars foretold him the whole 
series of his life. But that which was before him when he told me this 
proved false, if he told me true. For he said he was yet to be a greater 
man than he had heen.'' - History of his Own Times, vol. I, 90. 



168 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that some temiyorary laics should in the meantime be made 
for the better ordering of affairs till by a sufficient number 
of inhabitants of all degrees the government of Carolina 
can be administered according to the form established in 
the Fundamental Constitutions, we the Lords Proprietors 
have agreed to the following." 

The first, second, and third articles of these Tempo- 
rary Laws repeat in short form the provisions in regard 
to the nomination of deputies by the Palatines and other 
Proprietors ; admit the nobility as members of the Grand 
Council ; appoint the chief officers in the province with 
the same high-sounding titles ; declare the powers of the 
Council, the quorum of which should be the Governor and 
six councillors, whereof three at least shall be deputies of 
Proprietors. 4. In case of the death or departure of a 
deputy, his place should be supplied by the eldest of the 
councillors chosen by Parliament until another deputy 
be appointed. 5. Parliament to consist of the Governor, 
deputies, nobility, and twenty delegates of the freeholders 
to be assembled and to make laws agreeably to provisions 
of the Fundamental Constitutions. 6. All acts of such 
Parliament to cease at the end of the first Parliament 
convened after the Constitution should be put in force. 
7. As much of the Constitutions as practicable to be the 
rule of proceeding.^ 

The Agrarian Laws, which are twenty-three in number, 
were anything but such as would be inferred from their 
title. They were concerned entirely with the interests of 
the Proprietors and nobility, and the proportionate division 
of their landed estates. The distribution of the j^eople's 
share is alluded to only incidentally. The preamble sol- 
emnly announces a principle most inconsistent with the 
provisions which follow. " Since the Avhole foundation 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 119; Appendix, 354. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 169 

of the government," it declares, " is settled upon right 
and equal distribution of land and the orderly taking up 
of it of great moment to the welfare of the province," it 
goes on to provide that one-fifth of all shall be secured to 
the Proprietors, one-fifth to the nobility, and the rest to 
the people. 1 

There was no authority for such " Temporar}^ I^aws " 
under the charter. The provisions of that instrument 
allowed for such only upon an emergency, when an 
assembly of the freeholders could not be convened. It 
did not authorize such regulations of indefinite con- 
tinuance without the assent of the people. The Agrarian 
Laws did not purport to be of merely temporary char- 
acter ; on the contrary, they provided for the permanent 
distribution of lands. They were likewise not in ac- 
cordance with the terms of the charter, and so were not 
constitutionally of force. 

Hewatt mentions that during the government of Sir John 
Yeamans a civil disturbance broke out which threatened 
the ruin of the settlement ; that it had been fomented by 
Culpepper, with the connivance of O'Sullivan ; and that 
during these commotions the colonists were anticipating 
an invasion from the Spaniards of St. Augustine. It is 
said that O'Sullivan, who had been put in charge of the 
cannon on the island which now bears his name, in order 
to alarm the town in case of the appearance off the bar 
of any of the Spanish vessels, being ready to perish with 
hunger, deserted his charge and took part with Culpepper 
in the disturbance at Charles Town, where he was arrested 
by the Marshal for sedition and required to give security 
for his good ('oiidii-t.^ Clialmers, in his account of Cul- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 119 ; Appendix, .355. 

2 Hewatt, Hint, of So. Ca., vol, I, 02 ; Jlist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 112, note. 



170 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

pepper's insurrection in North Carolina in 1677, speaks of 
him as one who had in 1671 been appointed Surveyor 
General of Carolina, and who had raised commotions on 
the Ashley River. ^ We can find no contemporary allusions 
to such events. Braine, in a letter to Lord Ashley, Novem- 
ber, 1670, accuses O'Sullivan of rash and base dealings and 
abuse of the Governor, Council, and country ,2 but this 
was during the administration of West, not during that 
of Yeamans. 

The apprehension of an attack by the Spaniards at this 
time was not, however, without some foundation. The 
facilities for escape of servants and slaves to Florida, 
and their detention and protection there by the Span- 
iards, would have furnished a continual cause of irrita- 
tion between the two colonies had none other existed. 
The first purpose of slaves deserting their masters in 
Carolina Avas to reach St. Augustine. In this they Avere 
sometimes frustrated by Indians sent out in pursuit, who 
overtook and captured them. Brian Fitzpatrick, described 
as "a noted villain," who had before been punished by 
the Grand Council, now deserted to the Spaniards and 
informed them of the distressed condition of the colony. 
An attacking party was immediately dispatched from the 
Spanish garrison and took post at St. Helena Island. 
The hostile and warlike Indian tribe of Westoes, doubt- 
less under the same influence, also began to exhibit a 
troublesome disposition and Avere said to be lurking to 
the south Avard of Charles ToAvn Avith hostile purpose. 

At a meeting of the Grand Council on July 2, 1672, it 
was promptly resolved to dispatch a party of thirty men 
against the Westoes, and on the 9th the inhabitants Avere 
organized into a military body. John Godfrey Avas 

1 Chalmers, Political Annals, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 304, 

^ Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 329. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 171 

appointed Lieutenant Colonel ; Thomas Gray, Major, 
Captains, Maurice Mathews, John Robinson, Richard 
Conant, the seditious Florence O'Sullivan, and Robert 
Donne, who but six months before had been cashiered for 
abetting the stealing of a turkey. Donne, we must pre- 
sume, was a good soldier, notwithstanding his foraging 
habits. On the approach of Colonel Godfrey with fifty 
volunteers, the Spaniards retreated to St. Augustine, and 
the Westoes were unwilling to risk an engagement while 
the intervening small tribes continued friendly to the 
English.^ 

Sir John Yeamans was about to be removed. The 
necessities of the people at the close of his administration 
were of so pressing a nature, it is said, as to occasion 
great disquietude, but these were relieved by the seasonable 
arrival of the Proprietor's ship. It is worthy of remark, 
however, observes Rivers, that there appears never to 
have been so great a scarcity of food as to endanger the 
lives of the people. There was no "starving time" in 
Carolina, as there had been in Virginia during its first 
settlement. There were failures at first in the attempt to 
raise such grains and fruits as were not best adapted to the 
soil and climate ; but fish and oysters, an abundance of 
game in the woods, the fertility of the land in producing 
Indian corn and peas, were sufficient to insure the settle- 
ment from any fear of starvation. Even in the times of 
greatest complaint in 1673, provisions were exported to 
Barbadoes. That Governor Yeamans engaged too exten- 
sively in these exports was perhaps the chief cause of the 
clamors and discontents of the people. To these was 
added the same causes of dissatisfaction that had existed 
at Chowan and Cape Fear. The Proprietors in their parsi- 
mony were unwilling to send any more supplies. They 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 112, 125 ; Appendix, 382. 



172 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

turned again to West, who, if less ambitious than Sir John, 
was more economical in his administration. But West 
was still only a Cacique. So, on May 18, 1674, the Pro- 
prietors send a patent appointing him a Landgrave and 
a commission as Governor, and declare that he has all 
along, by his care and fidelity and prudence in the man- 
agement of their affairs, recommended himself to them 
"as the fittest man for their trust." They had made 
West give way to Yeamans ; they now proceed to arraign 
Yeamans's conduct to West. They cannot forbear plainly 
to say, they wrote, though they had a great regard for 
Sir John Yeamans, that when Mr. West bore the man- 
agement of their affairs they had had some encourage- 
ment to send supplies, but immediately as Sir John had 
assumed the government the face of things had been 
altered. Their first reports from him were proposals 
for increasing their Lordships' charges, and in his last 
dispatches he had sent a scheme which would require 
disbursements of several thousand pounds. He had in- 
sinuated that their Lordships had dealt ill with the colo- 
nists because they would not continue to feed and clothe 
them without promise of returns. They had put a stop 
to the supplies, for they thought it time to give over a 
charge which was like to have no end ; that the country 
was not worth having at that rate. It must be a bad soil, 
indeed, that would not maintain industrious people. They 
would not be so silly as to maintain the idle. But it was 
not the fault of the soil. Indeed, some of the Proprietors 
were so well assured of this, that at their own individual 
charges tliey were going to settle a plantation in the 
Edisto without expecting assistance of the Proprietors 
generally. They were well satisfied that it was Sir John 
Yeamans's management that had brought things to this 
pass. His management had been to make this province 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 173 

subservient to Barbacloes. They referred to the frequent 
mention of wanting a stock of cattle, and declared the 
design of the Lords Proprietors was to have planters in 
Carolina, not graziers. If their intention was to stock 
the province, their Lordships could do better by their 
own bailiffs and servants, who would be more obedient to 
their orders.^ 

Sir John had previously retired to Barbadoes in feeble 
health, where he died in August, 1674, possessed of con- 
siderable wealth, but having lost much of the reputation 
which he enjoyed when he entered upon the government 
of the colony. Halsted, in a letter to the Proprietors, 
does not hesitate to charge Sir John and Captain Gray 
with complicity in the death of an Indian killed by the 
" noted villain " Fitzpatrick.^ Nor was this the first 
charge of the kind which had been made against him. 
The Assembly at Barbadoes had accused him to Lord 
Willoughby, the Governor, in 1667, of conspiring against 
the life of a man " for noe other reason but that he had 
a mind to the other gentlemans wife."^ The truth is, 
that the glimpses we get through the records of the time, 
of the men who formed the first settlers of the colony on 
the Ashley, do not inspire us with great regard for their 
characters generally, or lead us to believe that they were 
others than such as might have been expected to be found 
in such an enterprise. They were adventurers whom one 
cause or another — domestic or political — had induced 
to seek in the New World fortunes they could not achieve 
in the Old. There was certainly little material among 
them for the ''nobility" of Landgraves and Caciques under 
the Fundamental Constitutions, even though we do not 

1 Calendar State Papers^ Colonial (Sainsbury), London, 1889, 1277. 

2 Ibid., 6G4. 

* Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 177. 



174 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

accept Archdale's description of them as "the most des- 
perate fortunes " who first " ventured over to break the 
ice," "being generally the ill livers of the pretended 
churchmen." ^ 

1 A Description of Carolina (Archdale), Carroll's Coll., 100. 



CHAPTER VIII 

1674-82 

Governor West's previous administration had been 
only temporary in its character, under appointment by 
Governor Sayle upon his death-bed, with the approba- 
tion of the Council, until the pleasure of the Lords Pro- 
prietors could be known. They had set him aside and 
appointed Sir John Yeamans, because, as they said, of Sir 
John's being a Landgrave. West was now regularly 
commissioned Governor and entered upon an administra- 
tion which was to last for eight years, during which the 
colony was to be settled upon a firm foundation, and by 
his wise and prudent conduct to enjoy for a short time 
the peace and order so necessary for its successful growth 
and prosperity. 

The Earl of Shaftesbury had informed West in the 
letter which announced his appointment as Governor, 
that so satisfied were some of the Proprietors with the 
soil and advantages of the country that they intended 
to settle a plantation on the Edisto at their own indi- 
vidual cost. This they now proceeded to do, and to 
facilitate them in their new enterprise, the Proprietors, 
as a body, laid out for these individual proprietors a 
plantation on both sides of the Edisto, or Ashepoo, River, 
of which they granted a commission as Governor to 
Andrew Percival, limiting Governor West's jurisdiction 
to five miles south of the Ashley, and instructing Gov- 

175 



176 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ernor West to afford all countenance, help, and assistance 
to the plantations on Locke Island, as the settlement was 
to be called. In one respect, however, they did not make 
the plantations independent of that on the Ashley. They 
did not authorize Governor Percival to issue warrants for 
lands, but retained this power in Governor West's hands, 
instructing him, Iiowever, to affix the seal to all such 
grants as Percival should send to him. The scheme, 
which was the first attempt to plant an outpost between 
the colonists on the Ashley and unfriendly Indians, did not 
succeed. It was abandoned and Percival was appointed 
in June, 1675, Register of Berkeley County and other parts 
adjoining. 1 The plan, it is supposed, originated with the 
Earl of Shaftesbury,^ possibly with Locke, in honor of 
whom it is probable the new government was named. 
This attempt presents another illustration of the uncer- 
tainty and impracticability of the plans of the Proprietors. 
The scheme of the Fundamental Constitutions was ab- 
surdly out of proportion, in its grandeur and elaborate- 
ness, even for a single government in a new country ; 
and yet here were their Lordships setting up another 
government within thirty miles of that on the Ashley, 
and with the commission to Percival sending also a copy 
of those extraordinary laws for his guidance and di- 
rection. The}^ had now three separate governments in 
the province of Carolina, for which Landgraves and 
Caciques, and all the high officers required by the Con- 
stitutions, were to be provided. There was the govern- 
ment at Albemarle, that at Ashley, and now this attempt 
at one on the Edisto ; and between that at Albemarle 
and that at Ashley had been the attempt at Cape Fear. 

^ Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 121, Appendix, 387, 388; Public Becords 
of So. Ca. (MSS.), vol. I. 

2 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 121. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 177 

The Earl of Shaftesbury soon after, at his own expense, 
engaged Dr. Henry Woodward to enter upon the explora- 
tion of the country of the Westoes and Cussatoes. The 
result of this visit was a treaty of peace and friendship 
between these nations and the English in Carolina. A 
comparison of the strength and resources of these Indians 
and the still feeble colonists induced the Proprietors (as 
they said) to shield the latter by restricting their inter- 
course with the tribes westward of Charles Town ; but 
the restraints now put upon the Indian trade was not, 
says Rivers, free from selhsh motives on the part of the 
Proprietors. They knew that furs and deer-skins, obtained 
in traffic for trifling articles, formed the principal source 
of gain to the industrious traders, among whom were the 
chief men in the colony. If frauds and abuses occurred, 
a prevention of them would not surely follow the restrict- 
ing of the trade to Proprietary agents. In April, 1677, 
Albemarle, Shaftesbur3% Clarendon, and Colleton agreed 
to contribute each £100 to be placed in the hands of Mr. 
William Saxby, then secretary and treasurer, for carrying 
on the Indian trade, allowing one-fifth of the clear profit 
to Dr. Woodward, according to a previous contract be- 
tween him and the Earl of Shaftesbury. At the same 
time they issued an "Order and Command" to the "gov- 
ernor council and other inhabitants of our province of 
Carolina," forbidding any of them, under pain of prosecu- 
tion and severe punishment, to trade during seven years 
with these or other Indians living beyond Port Royal, but 
leaving open to the settlers the trade for a considerable 
distance on the sea-coast, " and any other way not less 
than one hundred miles from their plantation which is 
all they can pretend or expect from us," continue tlieir 
Lordships, "it being in justice and reason fit that we 
should not be interrupted by them in our treaties and 



178 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAKOLtNA 

transactions with these nations that inhabit these distant 
countries with whom by our grant and charter from his 
Majesty we only have authority to treat or to inter- 
meddle."! 

Again we observe the utter disregard by the Pro- 
prietors even of their own favorite and ^' unalterable " 
Fundamental Constitutions, when the provisions even of 
those laws interfered in the least with their interests or 
views of the moment. By the terms of the Constitutions 
they had committed to the Grand Council the power " to 
make peace and war, leagues and treaties with any of the 
neighboring Indians." Under this authority the Council 
had acted ; they had declared war, made peace, and entered 
into treaties. It was scarcely to be expected that, situated 
as the colonists were, with their families exposed to the 
tomahawk and scalping-knife, they would leave the im- 
portant matter of their relations with the savages to be 
governed by the diplomacy of any set of men on the 
other side of the Atlantic.^ It is needless to add that 
they disregarded the instructions and took care of them- 
selves. 

To the Earl of Shaftesbury is ascribed the credit of 
a more sensible measure ; a measure which, if adopted, 
might have allayed, at least to some degree, the hostility 
of the irritable and warlike natives, and have secured at 
less cost the peace and safety of the settlers. The Pro- 
prietors claimed to be the sole owners of every acre of 
Carolina under King's grants, and they had expected tlie 
colonies to be established by driving the Indians away 
from the lands over which they and their ancestors had 
roamed from time immemorial. They were to be dealt 
with as savages deserved if they resisted the rights con- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 122, 123. 

2 Ibid., 123. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 179 

f erred by his Majesty King Charles II of England ; and 
it had been forbidden to purchase land from them. 
Shaftesbury now proposed — and in this we can scarcely 
doubt the influence of Locke — to revoke this order. 
This was, of course, little better than resorting to fraud 
rather than to force. The so-called purcliases were made 
for no adequate consideration from the Proprietors to the 
Indians. A few glittering trinkets and bright-colored 
ribbons and cloths, of little value, was the coin in which 
the Proprietors paid for the most valuable of all property, 
— land. There is, however, this to be said on the other 
side of the question; i.e. that the Indians themselves 
were selling what they did not own. They were selling 
and conveying land tenures, the nature of which they had 
no conception, and hence to which they had no rights. 
The chief value of the deeds which the Indians sisfned was 
really as a " color of title " against other Europeans. 

The first deed of transfer on record was made in March, 
1675, to Andrew Percival for the Earl of Shaftesbury 
and the rest of the Lords Proprietors, " for and in con- 
sideration of a valuable piece of cloth, hatchets, beads and 
other goods and manufactures." The territory ceded 
was that of " Greater and Lesser Casor lying on the 
River Kyewaw, the River Stono, and the fresher of the 
River Edisto." Perhaps to strengthen the deed of con- 
veyance, the signatures were taken of an odd assembly of 
Indians, there being the marks and seals of four Caciques, 
the marks of eleven war-captains and fourteen " woman 
captains." In 1682 and subsequently, lands were ceded 
by the Caciques of Wimbee, Stono, Combahee, Kussah, 
Edisto, Ashepoo, Witcheaw, and by tlie Queen and Captain 
of St. Helena, who generously surrendered (to please the 
English) their lands in a northwestward direction as far 
as the "Appalachian Mountains," although they had not 



180 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

even the claim of occupancy to any great distance from 
the sea-coast. All the northwest portion of the province 
was possessed by the populous and powerful Cherokees.^ 

The first accession to the number of original settlers, as 
we have seen, came from Barbadoes. Immigrants con- 
tinued to arrive in small parties from England in the 
Proprietors' ship the Ble^sing^ from the West Indies in 
the Carolina^ and in Captain Halsted's ship, in their 
respective A^oyages. Then had come the Dutch colony 
from Nova Belgia or New York. To induce immigration, 
the Proprietors had, in 1672, offered liberal concessions 
to freemen and servants from Ireland, particularly if they 
would come in sufficient numbers to make up a commu- 
nity and form a town by themselves " wherein they may 
have the free exercise of their religion according to their 
own discipline." In June, 1676, a whole colony of 12,000 
acres was promised to Mr. John Berkly, Simon Perkins, 
Anthony Laine, and John Pettitt, upon their landing in 
Carolina.'^ In March, 1679, Rene Petit, his Majesty's 
agent at Rouen, Jacob Grinard of Normandy, Gentleman, 
and Sir Thomas Dolmans petitioned the King for the 
transportation of several French Protestant families to 
Carolina. Their petition was referred to the Committee 
of Trade and Plantations^ in the Council at Whitehall, 
who recommended to his Majesty to give orders for the 
fitting out of tAVO ships (neither of which may draw 
tAvelve feet of Avater) as may be fit to transport the said 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 123-125. 

^ Ibid. (Rivers), 120, 121. 

3 The Committee of Trade and Plantations was one appointed by the 
Privy Council of Great Britain, to whom was referred all matters relating 
to the American colonies, and who had a general jurisdiction and super- 
vision over them. They were also called the Lords of the Committee of 
Trade and Plantations. See Government of the Colony of So. Ca. (Whit- 
ney); Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 13th Series, 1-11. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 181 

families, provided that the said families should give a list 
of their names with sufficient assurance that they would 
take sufficient victuals and provisions for themselves for 
the voyage, and that the said families should come from 
abroad or had arrived in England for the purpose and 
design of going to Carolina. Several such families 
availed themselves of this offer, and on the 17th of De- 
cember the Lords Proprietors write to the Governor and 
Council in Carolina recommending them to their care, as, 
being skilled in the manufacture of certain commodities, 
they might instruct the English settlers. They directed 
a grant to Rene Petit and Jacob Grinard of 4000 acres 
of land each.i One of these vessels was the frigate 
Richnond^ which arrived in 1680, bringing out forty-five 
French refugees. A more considerable number soon 
followed in the other vessel. In the redistribution of the 
lots in old Charles Town, Richard Batin, Jacques Jours, 
and Richard Deyos received town lots. These are 
assumed to have been French Protestants, but upon what 
authority is not known. In 1677 grants were made to 
Jean Balton ; in 1678 to Jean Bazant and Richard Gail- 
lard. ^ These were the first Huguenots in Carolina of 
whom there is record. It was expected that the French 
colonists would be very serviceable to the province by 
introducing the manufacture of silk and the culture of 
the olive and the vine. This expectation was not 
realized. The eggs of the silkworm hatched at sea and 
the worms perished for want of food ; nor did the other 
branches of industry sought to be promoted by them 
succeed. 3 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 392 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. 
of So. Ca., vol. I, 102 ; Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 242. 

2 Howe's Hist. Presbyterian Church, 73. 

3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 173, 174 ; Howe's Hist. Presby- 
terian Church, 73. 



182 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In the list of emigrants from Barbadoes in the year 
1679 we find the names of Robert Daniel, Thomas Dray- 
ton, John Ladson, and Arthur jVliddleton ^ — names which 
have since been interwoven with the history of the State. 

The Proprietors wished to build their chief town on 
some high land on the Ashley or Cooper, if such could be 
found free from the sickliness of the coast and the sudden 
inroads of an enemy's ship. But the explorations of 
Captain Halsted and the search of the committee of 
the Grand Council failed to find a more eligible situation 
than Oyster Point, to which the settlers began generally 
to move in 1679. Some had fixed their abode there as 
early as 1672. Such representations were made to the 
Lords Proprietors as caused them to write to Governor 
West and the Council on the 17th of December, 1679: " We 
are informed tliat this Oyster Point is not only a more 
convenient place to build a town on than that formerly 
pitched on by the first settlers, but that the people's inclina- 
tions turn thither ; we let you know that Oyster Point is 
the place Ave do appoint for the port town of which you 
are to take notice and call it Charles Town." ^ It was 
ordered at the same time that the public offices should 
be moved thither and the Grand Council summoned to 
meet there. In the spring of 1680 the removal was made, 
and during the same year thirty houses Avere erected. It 
Avas called for a Avhile by some persons Ncav Charles ToAvn, 
to distinguish it from the old toAvn, which now began to be 
abandoned ; from 1682 it Avas known for a period of one 
hundred years simply as Charles Town^ or CharlestoAvn. 

The Rielim.ond, his Majesty's ship Avhich brought out 

1 List of Emigrants to America, 1600-1700 (Hottin). 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 128, 120; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. 
Ca., vol. I, 102, 103. 

3 Ibid. See note of Rivers giving reason for fixing the time of the 
removal as of the spring of 1680. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 183 

the French Protestants under Petit and Grinard, was also 
charged with particular instructions to inquire into the 

state of the country, and T A , Gentleman,^ a clerk 

on board of that vessel upon its return in 1682, published 
a description of the province and of its natural excel- 
lences. "The town," he says, "is regularly laid out into 
large and capacious streets, which to buildings is a great 
ornament and beauty. In it they have reserved con- 
venient places for a church. Town House and other pub- 
lic structures, an artillery ground for the exercise of their 
militia, and wharves for the convenience of their trade 
and shipping. "2 Xhe site reserved for a church is that 
at the corner of Broad and Meeting streets, where stood 
the original St. Philip's Church, and now stands St. 
Michael's. So this spot, set apart at the very inception 
of the province, has remained until this day consecrated 
to the service of God, and separated from all unhallowed 
worldly and common uses. The first church was soon 
built. It was black cypress upon a brick foundation, and 
was described as large and stately, surrounded by a neat 
palisade. It was usually called the English Church, but 
its distinctive name was St. Philip's.^ It was probably 
begun during the last of the administration of Governor 
West, who was distinguished for his piety as well as for 
his justice and moderation. The Proprietors, as we have 
seen, had been repeatedly urged by the colonists to send 
out a clergyman, and they had agreed to allow Mr. Bond 
a grant of land and a stipend if he would come. He had 
not done so, but there was a minister of the Church of 
England in Charles Town at this time. The Rev. 
Atkin Williamson was here certainly in 1781, probably 
in 1680, but it is not known at what time previously he 

^ T A , supposed to be Thomas Ash. Carroll's Coll.^ vol. I. 

Preface. 2 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 82. 3 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 26. 



184 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

came into the province.^ As early as 1671 Governor West 
had endeavored to restrain the licentiousness naturally 
arising among a new people living without the public 
ordinances of religion. ^ In May, 1682, acts Avere passed 
for the observance of the Lord's Day, and for the sup- 
pression of idleness, drunkenness, and profanity. Besides 
these efforts for promoting the morality of the people, 
the close of Governor West's second administration was 
marked by the wisdom of laws enacted for the organization 
of the militia of the province, and for making high roads 
from the new town at Oyster Point throuo^h the forests 
that stretched into the interior. ^ 

Samuel Wilson, secretary of the Proprietors, also pub- 
lished an account of Carolina about the same time (1682). 
He states that since the order of the Proprietors appoint- 
ing Oyster Point as the new town, about a hundred houses 
had been built, and more were building daily by the per- 
sons of all sorts that come there to inhabit from the more 
northern English colonies, the Sugar Islands, England, and 
Ireland. That many industrious servants who had served 
out their terms with their masters, at whose charge they 
were transported, had gotten good stocks of cattle and 
servants of their own, had built houses and exercised 
their trades. That many that went out as servants 
were then worth several hundred pounds and lived in a 
very plentiful condition, and their estates increasing; 
that land near the town was sold for twenty shillings 

1 Bishop Perry, in his Hist, of the American Episcopal Church, vol. I, 
372, quotes a letter of Coininissary Johnson, written in 1710, in which he 
states that Mr. Williamson had been in the province twenty-nine years, 
which would imply his arrival in 1681. But in a deed of Originall Jackson 
and Meliscent his wife giving a tract of land for another church, dated 
January 14, 1680-81, Mr. Williamson is mentioned as then in the colony. 
The inference is that he had arrived at least as early as some time in 1680. 

^ Hist. ^Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 130. ^ Ibid. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 185 

(^i.e. about $25 of present currency) per acre, though 
pillaged of all its valuable timber ; cleared land fitted for 
planting and fenced was let for ten shillings per annum 
the acre, though twenty miles distant from the town. 
Six men could in six weeks' time fell, clear, fence in, and 
fit for planting six acres of land. He states that at this 
town in November, 1680, there rode at one time sixteen 
sail of vessels, some of which were upwards of 200 tons 
and came from divers parts of the King's kingdom to 
trade there, which great concourse of shipping would un- 
doubtedly in a short time make it a considerable town.^ 

Wilson was the secretary for the Lords Proprietors, 
and so his account may be regarded somewhat as an 
advertisement colored to induce immigration, but the 
clerk on the Richmond gave an equally pleasing account 
of the progress of the colony. " At our being there," he 
writes, "there was judged in the country a 1000 or 1200 
souls, but the great number of families from England, Ire- 
land, Barbadoes Jamaica and the Caribbee Islands which 
daily transport themselves thither, have more than doubled 
that number." 2 

These accounts agree as to the healthiness of the coun- 
try. Wilson states that the inhabitants of Carolina are 
no more liable to agues than those of England ; that those 
in England who seat themselves near great marshes are 
subject to such attacks and do suffer as those who do like- 
wise in Carolina ; that elsewhere the country is exceed- 
ingly healthy ; and cites an instance of a family consisting 
of never less than twelve persons, in wliicli there had been 
no deaths since their arrival in nine years. Nor, he adds, 
is there one of the masters of families that went over in 
the first vessel dead of sickness in Carolina except one, 
who was seventy and five years of age l)efore he came 
1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 23, 24. 2 ji^ia.^ 82. 



186 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

there. ^ T A asserts that the Indians prolong 

their days to the extremity of old age, and that the Eng- 
lish hitherto have found no distempers, either epidemical 
or mortal, but such as have their rise from excess or in- 
temperance. He admits that in July and August they 
have sometimes touches of agues and fevers, but not vio- 
lent, of short duration, and never fatal. English children 
born there are commonly strong and lusty, of sound con- 
stitutions, and fresh, ruddy complexions.^ The Avhole set- 
tlement at this time was upon the rivers and the coast, 
extending no farther than thirty miles from the town — 
the region which has since been affected with the deadly, 
high, bilious, congestive fever. It is clear, therefore, that 
the country fever, since prevalent in the summer in the 
low country, was not then known. 

Wilson describes the summer as not so hot as in Vir- 
ginia and the more northern colonies, which he attributes 
to the sea-breezes which almost constantly arise about 
eight or nine o'clock within the tropics and blow from 
the east until about four in the afternoon, and to a north 
wind which arises a little after, blowing all night, keeping 
it fresh and cool. Thomas Ash only commits himself to 
the fact that the summers are not so torrid, hot, and burn- 
ing as that of their southern, nor the winters so sharp 
and cold as that of their northern, neighborhood. 

The soil was found to be generally very fertile. There 
were some sandy tracts, but even tliis land produced good 
corn. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, and peas thrive exceed- 
ingly, and the ground yields in greater abundance than in 
England ; but the chief produce of the field was Indian 
corn, of which there were two plentiful harvests. Whole- 
some bread and good biscuits were made of this, and it 

1 Carroirs CoU., vol. I, 26. This allusion is no doubt to Governor 
Saye, who was, in fact, eighty years of age. ^ Ibid., 62. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 187 

was dressed with milk in various ways, furnisliing a 
strong, sound, and nourishing diet. Of the juice of the 
corn when green, the Spaniards, with chocolate aromatized 
with spices, made a rare drink of excellent delicacy. The 
English among the Caribbees roasted the green ear on the 
coals, and ate it with great pleasure. 

The Indians in Carolina, when on a journey, parch the 
ripe corn, then pound it into a powder, and put it in a 
leather bag. To use it, they take a little quantity of the 
powder in the palms of their hands, and mixing it with 
water, sup it up. With this they will travel several days. 
It was described, in short, as a grain of general use to man 
and beast. The Carolinian had already found a way of 
making with it good, sound beer, but rather strong and 
heady, and by maceration, when duly fermented, a strong 
spirit-like brandy. Tobacco was found to grow very well, 
but the great trouble in the planting and cure of it, 
and the great quantities which Virginia and other of his 
Majesty's plantations produced, did not encourage its 
planting. Tar of the resinous juice of the pine was made 
in great quantities ; several tons were transported yearly 
to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the Caribbee Islands. Indigo 
had been tried with success, but had been abandoned, for 
what reason it could not be learned. 

The great increase in cattle, it was said, was more to 
be admired than believed. In 1674 the Proprietors had 
refused to send out any live-stock, and the country was 
destitute of cows, hogs, or sheep. In seven years after, 
there were many thousands in the province. Individual 
planters had already 700 or 800 head. They were not 
subject to any disease, and the little winter did not pinch 
them so as to be perceived. The planters were thus saved 
the care of providing fodder for them in the winter. Caro- 
lina would thus be able to supply the northern colonies 



188 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

with salted beef cheaper than they themselves could raise ; 
for, considering that all the woods in Carolina offered good 
pasturage, and the small rent that was paid the Proprie- 
tors for land, an ox was raised at almost as little expense 
in Carolina as a hen is in England. So, too, hogs increased 
abundantly, and in a manner without any charge or 
trouble to the planter. Ewes also did well, but required 
a shepherd to drive them to feed, and to bring them home 
at night to preserve them from wolves. The colonists had 
begun to breed horses, which bred well. The colts were 
finer limbed and headed than their dams or sires, which 
gave great hopes of an excellent breed. Negroes throve 
by reason of the mildness of the winter much better than 
they did in the more northern colonies, and required less 
clothes, which was a great charge saved. 

Living was very cheap in the colony. Indian corn sup- 
plied the bread ; the rivers abounded with every kind of 
fish, near the sea with very good oysters, and the woods 
with hares, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, and deer. An 
Indian hunter would kill nine fallow deer in a day. All 
the considerable planters had an Indian hunter, who sup- 
plied them with game. For 20 shillings a year, i.e. from 
•f20 to i25, one hunter would find a family of thirty per- 
sons with as much venison and game as they could well 
eat. Deer were in such infinite herds that the whole 

country seemed but one continued park. T A 

states, upon the authority of Captain Mathews, that one 
hunting Indian had yearly killed and brought to his plan- 
tation more than 100, sometimes 200, head of deer. Bears 
were in great numbers. From the fat of these, the Indians 
made oil which was of great value in making the hair to 
grow. The Indians had a way of dressing the skins of 
wild animals rather softer, though not so durable, as that 
used in England. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 189 

The settlers in Carolina were thriving not, as yet, so 
much as planters as traders. Their trade was princi- 
pally with Barbadoes and the other West Indies. They 
exported to England skins and furs, and Indian pelfry 
and cedar ; to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and the Caribbee 
Islands provisions, pitch, tar, and clapboards, for which 
they obtained in exchange sugar, rum, molasses, and gin- 
ger. Their trade was, unhappily, not restricted to these 
legitimate articles of commerce. In the Temporary 
Laws sent out to Sayle it was expressly provided that 
no Indian, upon any occasion or pretence whatsoever, 
was to be made a slave or without his own consent be 
carried out of the country; ^ but this humane provision was 
disregarded by the Proprietors themselves, and disobeyed 
by the colonists. It was the Proprietors who first " gave 
the privilege," to use their own language, of selling 
Indian captives from Carolina to the West India Islands 
as the cheapest means of " encouraging the soldiers " of 
the infant colony .^ However shocking this may appear 
to the sentiment of the present age, in judging the con- 
duct of the Proprietors, we must recollect that by the 
rules of war, at that time, prisoners and captives were 
regarded as the absolute property of the conquerors, who 
might take their lives or sell them into bondage, — a rule 
which was cited and relied upon as international law a 
hundred years afterwards by the British authorities in 
Carolina as their justification of the treatment of Ameri- 
cans taken as prisoners of war.^ The title of the Pro- 
prietors rested upon the claims of England to a conquest 
of this territory,^ and hence the slavery and exportation 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 353. 2 ii,ul.^ 132. 

3 i?o?/aZG^a^e«e (No. 103),'February20, 1782, Charlestown, South Ccarolina. 

* So says Blackstone. See ante., p. 51. But from whom conquered, — 
from the Spaniards or the Indians ? If from the Indians, as we shall 
have occasion to ask, why did the Proprietors attempt to secure title by 
purchase from them ? 



190 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of Indians was a matter merely of expediency, and not of 
moral wrong under the political tenets of the age. And 
so it was that now Governor West was to be removed 
because of the displeasure of the Proprietors at the sell- 
ing of Indian slaves purchased by the planters from the 
neighboring Indian tribes. This trade the Proprietors 
regarded as one of the perquisites of their grant and were 
very jealous of any interference with it by the colonists. 
Indian slaves were shipped and sold to the West Indies, 
and African slaves were bought there and brought in 
return to Carolina. 

Wilson, for the Proprietors, offered to those who would 
go out to the province, — to each master or mistress of a 
family, 50 acres ; to every able son or man-servant they 
should carry 50 acres more, and the like to each marriage- 
able daughter or woman-servant ; and for each child, man 
or woman servant under sixteen years of age, 40 acres ; 
to each servant when his time of service was out, 50 acres. 
This land was to be to them and their heirs forever, with 
the reservation of a penny an acre quit-rent to the Lords 
Proprietors. To those who preferred not to be encum- 
bered with paying a rent, and also to secure to themselves 
tracts of land without being forced to bring servants to 
put upon them, the Proprietors offered to sell at the rate 
of c£50 per 1000 acres, reserving a peppercorn per annum 
rent when demanded. This was certainly not very cheap 
if we assume that the pound at that5%time was equal in 
value to four at the present ; for the price of those wild 
lands would have been equal to about one dollar an acre 
of the present currency, a price at which large tracts of 
the same can be purchased to-day. 



CHAPTER IX 

1682-85 

The immigration to Carolina had hitherto been that 
simply of adventurers uninfluenced by any religious or 
political motives. Governor Sayle, it is true, was a Puri- 
tan, but it was not on that account that he had been made 
Governor; it was rather because of his availability to Yea- 
mans when he determined not to come himself. So, too. 
West was a man of piety, but not on that account had 
he been appointed, but only because that he was " the 
fittest man for the trust " the Proprietors could find when 
Sir John again failed them. The breaking out of the 
Popish Terror in England in 1678, and the religious ex- 
citement which ensued, in view of the succession of 
James to the throne in case of his brother's death, in 
which commotion Shaftesbury, one of the Proprietors, was 
much involved, now caused an emigration from England 
to Carolina of a class generally superior in character and 
morals to any that had yet come, excepting only the Bar- 
badian planters andj,the French Protestants who had come 
out with Grinard and Petit. 

The Proprietors, on the 10th of May, 1682, announced 
that they had been prevailed upon at the request of sev- 
eral eminent persons who had a mind to become settlers in 
the province to review their Fundamental Constitutions 
and to make some additions and alterations thereto. The 
first two of these changes related only to the matter of 

191 



192 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

precedence between themselves, and were of no concern 
to the colonists. The third was the very small concession 
that the Grand Conncil " W^* is the Senate of Carolina," 
they said, were allowed to propose to the Parliament such 
things as they might upon mature consideration think fit- 
ting for the good of the people, without first submitting 
the same to the negative of the Palatine Court in Eng- 
land. The fourth then went a small step further and 
provided that in case the Grand Council should forget 
their duty, and not take sufficient care to remedy in- 
conveniences by proposing fitting laws to be passed by 
Parliament, the grand jury of the county might present 
anything necessary to be passed into law ; and if the 
Grand Council did not then in convenient time propose it 
to the Parliament, that it might be acted upon without 
their consent. The only other considerable alteration was 
that made in compliance with the desire of several eminent 
wealthy men, who proposed to become settlers in Carolina, 
and of some who were already there, who were unwilling 
to be encumbered with the payment of rent for their lands; 
for these the Proprietors agreed that rent might be re- 
mitted by special instruments under their hands and seals. 
These modifications were made to meet the views of in- 
fluential nonconformists, who were turning their eyes to 
the new country, in apprehension of persecution at home. 
In a letter accompanying these modifications their Lord- 
ships disavowed power thereafter to alter anything in the 
Fundamental Constitutions without the people's consent, 
but at the same time ordered that no person should be 
chosen a member of the Council or have land allotted 
before he subscribed submission to these laws in their 
amended form. The colonists, remembering the oaths that 
had been extorted from them to the first set, and still deny- 
ing the right of the Proprietors under the charter to make 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 198 

any law without the assent and approbation of the people 
assembled for this purpose, declined again to recognize 
these Constitutions even in their modified form. It was 
just as well tliat they did so, for a short time after — and 
that before it could have been known in England that 
they had refused to accept the Constitutions of Ma}^ 1682 — 
there came out still another set bearing date the seventeenth 
day of August, to which the Council and the people were 
again solemidy required to subscribe. No other reasons for 
the sudden alteration were given than that it was done at 
the request of certain Scots and other considerable persons. 
This last set was likewise rejected by the colonists.^ 

An order contemporaneous with the modifications of the 
Constitutions of the 10th of May, 1682, divided the province 
into three counties. Berkeley, embracing Charles Town, 
extended from Sewee on the north to Stono Creek on the 
south ; beyond to the northward Avas Craven County, and to 
the southward Colleton County, all extending within land 
to a distance of thirty-five miles from the sea-coast. A 
County court was ordered to be established at Charles 
Town for all the inhabitants. Craven County was sparsely 
settled until the Huguenots occupied the banks of the San- 
tee, so that practically there were but two counties at this 
period. 2 

Oldmixon, the author of the work entitled The British 
Empire in America^ writes : — 

" 'Twas about this time that the Persecution rais'd by the Popish 
Faction and their adherents in England against the Protestant 
Dissenters was at the height; and no Part of tlie Kingdom suffer'd 
more by it than Somersetshire. The Author of this History Uv'd 
at that time with Mr. Blake, brother of the famous General by that 
name, being educated by his Son-in-law, who taught School in 
Bridgevvater ; and remembers 'tho' then very young, the reasons 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 421. 

^ Ibid, 134-135. 

o 



194 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

old Mr. Blake us'd to give us for leaving England. One of which was, 
that the miseries they endur'd, meaning the Dissenters, then were 
nothing to what he foresaw would attend the Reign of a Popish suc- 
cessor; wherefore he resolved to remove to Carolina. And he had so 
great au interest among Persons of his principles (I mean Dissenters) 
that many honest substantial Persons engaged to go over with him." ^ 

Benjamin Blake,^ Daniel Axtell, and Joseph Morton,^ 
who afterwards married Blake's daughter, Avere the 
leaders of this movement. Several other families fol- 
lowed the fortunes of Blake ; and through the encour- 
agement of Axtell and Morton, five hundred persons 
arrived in Carolina in less than a month, so that, as we 
have seen, the population of the colony was doubled during 
the period from 1680 to 1682. In reward for this great 
service, Morton and Axtell, with Thomas Colleton, who 
had been the Proprietors' agent in Barbadoes, and who 
had also contributed much to the increase of the colony, 
were made Landgraves in 1681 ; and Governor West was 
now required to give place to Joseph Morton, who was 
commissioned Governor on the 18th of May, 1682.* To find 
an excuse for his removal, the ever-ready and convenient 
charge was made against West, — - that of dealing in 
Indian slaves, and opposing the Proprietors' policy in 
the colony. The real reason was doubtless to encourage 
immigration from this new and important source. 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 460 ; Oldnilxon, Carolina, Carroll's 
Coll., vol. II, 407. 

2 Benjamin Blake was a brother of the famous English Admiral of 
the Commonwealth. The family were of Bridgevvater in Somersetshire. 

3 The Mortons were an ancient English family. Prominent among the 
members of it who came to America, besides Joseph Morton, were 
Thomas Morton, one of the most interesting historical characters of early 
New England; Rev. Charles Morton, Vice President of Harvard and 
author of a number of treatises ; George Morton, the ancestor of Vice 
President Levi P. Morton. Morion Memoranda (Leach), 1804. 

4 Coll. Hist. Soc. nf So. Ca., vol. I, 100. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERKMENT 195 

A still more important movement was inaugurated 
about the same time, which was destined, however, to 
end disastrously. On the 21st of November, 1682, the 
Lords Proprietors inform Governor Morton that they had 
entered into an agreement with Sir John Cockram of 
Ochiltree and Sir (jeorge Campbell, in behalf of them- 
selves and otlier Scots, for the settlement of a county in 
Carolina. This new colony was conducted to Carolina 
by Henry Lord Cardross. His Lordship w^as descended 
from the Lords Erskine and the Eai'ls of Mar, and Lady 
Cardross was the dauohter of Sir James Stuart. Lord 
Cardross had been in many ways a sufferer for resistance 
to oppression, and determined to seek freedom of con- 
science in America. Nor was he alone in this. A com- 
pany of noblemen entered into bonds with each other for 
making a settlement in the province. The subscribers 
were thirty-six in number. Among them were some who 
bore the names of Callender, Cardross, Yester, Hume 
of Polwart, Cockburn, Douglass, Lockhart, Gilman, etc. 
They had obtained from the Proprietors the grant of 
a county consisting of thirty plats of 12,000 acres each 
in the neighborhood of Port Royal, the title for which 
the Proprietors undertook to secure by treaty and pur- 
chase from the Indians ; and for this purpose the Proprie- 
tors authorized Governor Morton and Maurice Mathews 
to receive and take possession of all lands sold by the 
Indians. The Scots selected Port Royal on account of 
the fame of its harbor and the excellence of its situation, 
which had been so greatly extolled; and doubtless sup- 
posing that as the titles to the lands were to be obtained 
by purchase from the Indians, no danger was to be ap- 
prehended from that source. Unfortunately, they did not 
take into consideration the proximity of the location to 
the Spaniards at St. Augustine. 



196 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

This colony was to be independent of that at Charles 
Town, and Cardross understood himself to have coordinate 
jurisdiction with the Governor there. He landed in 1683, 
and founded Stuart's Town, probably so called in honor of 
the family of Lady Cardross. Rivers states that Lord 
Cardross was accompanied by about ten families, among 
whose names were those of Hamilton, Montgomerie, and 
Dunlop ; but Howe quotes Wodrow, a most exact histo- 
rian, to the effect that there were many others.^ It had, 
indeed, been expected that some 10,000 emigrants would 
have been obtained from Scotland to this colony, for the 
persecution consequent upon the rising in the West 
country was then raging fearfully ; and, while many were 
fleeing before it in anticipation, many others were invol- 
untarily banished and sent to America, condemned to 
servitude. 

As an instance of the cruelty with which these un- 
fortunate people were treated, and illustrating the gen- 
eral insecurity of life and liberty, of the times. Dr. 
Howe relates the following incidents : A considerable 
number of Scotch rebels were sentenced to transpor- 
tation in a ship belonging to William Gibson, a merchant 
in Glasgow, and commanded by his brother. Captain 
James Gibson. On the voyage these poor people were 
disturbed when at worship, and the hatches closed 
upon them whenever they began to sing. They were 
stinted in their food, and water was unnecessarily denied 
them. One is supposed to have died from thirst. The 
sick were not cared for. One of the voluntary exiles, 
failing to pay all of his passage-money, was forced into 
the country as a servant. Two, attempting to escape, 
were barbarously used, beaten eight times a day, and, it 

1 Hht. Sketches (Rivers), 142 ; Hist. Presb. Ch., 80; Wodrow's Hist. 
of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 197 

is said, condemned to perpetual servitude, but to whom 
and in what way is not stated. Captain Gibson did not 
restrict himself to the prisoners delivered to him. He 
seized one Elizabeth Lining, who liad gone aboard the 
vessel when lying in the Clyde, to visit the prisoners, and 
brought her off in captivity. She was set at liberty as a 
free woman by the Grand Council at Charles Town, on 
the ITtli of October, 1(384, upon her petition ; but we 
are not told that she was restored to her native land. 
Most of these prisoners died in Carolina. 

Governor Morton's administration Avas but of short du- 
ration. He was a man of a sober and religious temper of 
mind, with some share of wisdom ; and from his family 
alliance it was hoped that the hands of the government 
would be strengthened ; but his instructions from England 
were so opposed to the views and interests of the people 
as greatly to hamper him in the execution of the duties of 
his ofifice. His Council was composed of John Boone, 
Maurice Mathews, John Godfre}^ Andrew Percival, Arthur 
Middleton, and James Moore. Some of these differed 
widely from him in opinion with respect to public meas- 
ures, and claimed greater indulgences for the people than 
he had authority to grant. This strengthened the differ- 
ences between the two parties already forming in the 
colony, — one in support of the prerogative and authority 
of the Proprietors, the other in defence of the liberties of 
the people ; the one party relying upon the Fundamental 
Constitutions and the Governor's instructions, and the 
other resting their rights under the Royal charter. A 
singular illustration of the potent influence of individual 
interest over political theories and principles was liere pre- 
sented. We find West, a dissenter, and Morton, who had 
just left his own country for religious freedom and politi- 
cal liberty. Roundhead commoners, both accepting the 



198 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

bauble title of Landgrave, and upholding the arbitrary 
prerogative of the Proprietors, while the churchmen from 
England and Barbadoes were, for the present, insisting upon 
the chartered rights of the people under the Royal grants. 

The election for the twenty members of Parliament had 
hitherto been held at Charles Town, the centre of the 
small population, but now that the people were increasing, 
and in a measure spreading themselves, and that the new 
counties had been laid out, the Proprietors, doubtless in- 
fluenced by Morton and his party, who had settled on 
the Edisto, directed that Berkeley and Colleton counties 
should be equally represented by the election from each 
of ten members ; and that the two elections should be held 
on the same day, respectively, at Charles Town and at 
London (afterwards called Wilton) in Colleton. It is 
not known whether Governor Morton had received these 
instructions at the time he convened a Parliament in 
September, 1683. On the 3d of that month the Proprie- 
tors wrote to him reiterating their instructions, and add- 
ing that, as they were uncertain that their orders had 
arrived in time, they directed that if the Parliament had 
been chosen by election only in Charles Town, that it be 
dissolved and a new Parliament called, to be chosen as 
then directed. 

There is a passage in this letter which indicates that 

the voting in Carolina even before this early day had 

been by ballot. The Proprietors wrote : — 

" We are informed that there are many undue practices in the choice 
of members of parliament, and thai men are adnutted to bring papers for 
others, and to put in their votes for them which is ntterly illegal and con- 
trary to the custom of parliament, and will in time, if suifered, be 
very mischievous. You are therefore to take care that such practices 
be not suffered for the future ; but every man must deliver his own vote 
and no man be suffered to bring the rote of another," etc.^ 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 135; Appendix, 407. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 199 

It is certain that voting "by ballot or scrutiny" was 
expressly directed by their Lordships' instructions of Sep- 
tember 10, 1685.1 

It was certainly a great advance for the convenience 
of the people to have elections held in two places instead 
of one. But it was a most arbitrary and unjust provision 
that the new Colleton County, with its sparse population, 
settled but recently by the new-comers from England 
under Blake, Morton, and Axtell, should have equal rep- 
resentation with Berkeley, in which far the greater part 
of the people were established. Such a deviation could 
be regarded only as a design to govern the old settlers by 
the new. It was also another violation of the principle 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 115. 

The recklessness of assertion by writers in regard to Southern history 
is strikingly exhibited in a recent work entitled, The Puritan in Holland^ 
England, and America (1892). The author having traced to his satis- 
faction the origin of the use of the ballot in the North to the organization 
of Salem Church in 1629, in which it was adopted, as he holds, from Hol- 
land, proceeds boldly to assert : — 

" Here then we see the written ballot introduced into the early 
colonies where the Netherland influence can be directly traced and into 
them alone. Like the free school and the township it was unknown 
South of Pennsylvania, as it was in the mother country. How it finally 
worked into the first constitutions of a majority of the original thirteen 
States, and how it has thence spread over the whole Union, Virginia 
and Kentucky bringing up the rear in 1864 and 1891, has already been 
shown."— Vol. II, 438-440. 

There never has been an election in South Carolina except by ballot, 
as far as is known. In Great Britain the ballot was suggested for use in 
Parliament by a political tract of the time of Charles II. It was actually 
used by the Scots Parliament in 1662. These were the sources from 
which it was taken in this colony. Locke, who prescribed it hi the 
Fundamental Constitutions for elections in the Parliament and Grand 
Council, was doubtless much more familiar with these precedents and 
those of ancient Rome than with the action of the Salem congregation. 
It will appear later on that the assertion in regard to free schools, so 
far as South Carolina is concerned, is as untrue as that in regard to the 
ballot. 



200 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for which the colonists were contending, i.e. that under 
the charter no hiw could be passed without their assent. 
If the Proprietors could alter the election precincts at 
will, and designate the apportionment of members of Par- 
liament in the precincts, there was an end of all influence 
and control of the people in the government. Whether 
the instructions had arrived before the election of the Par- 
liament called by Morton or not, they were disregarded, 
and the elections had been held at Charles Town as 
usual. 

Governor Morton dissolved the Parliament upon the 
receipt of the letter of the 30th of September peremptorily 
ordering him so to do, — but not before numerous acts had 
been passed by it. The Proprietors were as much offended 
by the character of the laws passed by this body as by the 
election in violation of their orders. They now viewed 
with abhorrence the adoption of a law for protecting the 
colonists against prosecution for debts contracted out of 
the colony as impeding the course of justice, as against 
the King's honor, and repugnant to the law of England, 
forgetting that in their anxiety to encourage immigration 
they had sanctioned a similar law in 1670. They ordered 
"that all officers should be displaced who had promoted 
it." The Governor and Council were further blamed for 
slighting their instructions concerning the election. The 
Proprietors claimed to have power by their charter to call 
assemblies of the freeholders ; that their Fundamental 
Constitutions appointed how this should be done, and that 
their orders stood in the place of the Constitutions until 
they could be put in force. But this haughty strain, 
observes Rivers, did not quell the spirit of opposition, 
and their Lordships further showed how little they un- 
derstood those under their government, when, vexed at 
their failure, they wrote to Governor Morton in the follow- 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAllY GOVERNMENT 201 

ing March, " Are you to govern the people, or the people 
you?"i 

Unfortunately for the plans of the Proprietors, con- 
tinues the same author, their Governors and deputies were, 
for the most part, necessarily selected from the colonists 
themselves, whose dispositions and principles they could 
not be sure were in accordance with their own. Did they 
instruct Morton to remove all officers who sold or encour- 
aged the selling of Indian slaves ? The Governor himself 
was not free from blame. Their own deputies fell under 
the blow as well as the commoners of the Grand Council ; 
and these the people thought fit to elect again. Did they 
inveigh against any indulgence to the English pirates who 
visited the coast ? The people were not disposed to hang 
them while their monarch encouraged, with unusual honoi's, 
the chief captain of the band. Did the Proprietors demand 
their quit-rents in money ? The people said there was no 
mint in Carolina and coin was scarce. Did they refer to 
the powers granted by the charter? The people were 
willing to be governed by the charter which made their 
concurrence necessary for the adoption of any plan of 
government. 2 

The Proprietors, thus foiled by their own agents, thought 
that possibly a Governor from abroad would be more sub- 
servient to their interests, so Morton was removed and 
Sir Richard Kyrle of Ireland was appointed in his place 
in April, 1684. To fit him for the position, Kyrle was, of 
course, appointed a Landgrave. The Proprietors expressed 
to him their hope that from his abilities and activity the 
affairs of Carolina would be in a better condition tlian 
before ; they pointed out the evils they wished him to 
remedy, cautioned him against the Spaniards, and advised 
him to put the province in a state of defence. But Sir 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 135, 137. 2 ji^ia.^ 137, 138. 



202 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Richard did not live to carry out his instructions. He 
died within six montlis after his arrival in the country. ^ 

Upon the death of Kyrle, the Council, who under the 
instructions were charged in such event to choose a person 
to act until the Proprietors' pleasure should be known, 
again turned to West and chose him as Governor ; but it 
happened that he was not at that time in the province. 
In their instructions to Kyrle the Proprietors had recom- 
mended that in case of his absence he should commission 
Robert Quarry, the Secretary of the province, as Governor 
of Charles Town ; acting upon this intimation of their 
Lordships' opinion of Quarry, in the absence of West the 
Council chose him as Governor. But it was, indeed, diffi- 
cult to please their Lordships. They disapproved the 
selection. Forgetting, apparently, that they had denied 
Yeamans's right to be Governor because he was a Land- 
grave, they now wrote to the Council that they should 
have chosen Landgrave Morton, whom they, tlie Pro- 
prietors, had just removed to make way for Kyrle, "to 
whom," they said, in the absence of Landgrave West, " by 
virtue of our Fundamental constitutions and instructions 
the government of right belonged," — a rule we shall soon 
see them disregarding when it conflicted with their pur- 
poses. Beyond the expression of their disapproval, the 
Proprietors did not, however, interfere. Colonel Quarry 
was a man of character, and subsequently occupied other 
high positions in colonial affairs. He succeeded Edward 
Randolph as Surveyor General of his Majesty's customs in 
America, was Vice Admiral of Carolina ^ in 1700, and after- 
wards became Judge of Admiralty of New York and Penn- 
sylvania. His short ad interim administration was not a 
fortunate one — responsible as it was, in part, for the ill- 

1 Hewatt, vol. I, 92 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 138. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. Il/265. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 203 

treatment of the unhappy Scotch colony under Lord 
Cardross. But the justice of the accusation for complicity 
with the pirates, for which it has been most known in 
history, is at least not free from doubt. 

On the 1st of September, 1684, an armed vessel came 
into the Ashley, which pretended to have been trading 
with Spaniards, and Quarry reported to the Proprietors 
that he had prohibited the landing or selling of any of its 
goods, as he had received information that it was a pirati- 
cal vessel. This statement, it was afterwards charged to 
the Proprietors, was false ; that in fact, although Quarry 
knew the vessel to be piratical, he had allowed the plun- 
dered goods to be landed and sold. Quarry had in the 
meanwhile displeased the Proprietors in other matters, 
particularly by his treatment of Lord Cardross. On the 
15th of February, 1685-86, they ordered an inquiry as to 
his conduct, declaring that the truth of the charge must 
be proved or Quarry's reputation vindicated.^ Two months 
after, April 26, complaining of his conduct to Lord Car- 
dross, they threatened that he should be suspended from 
his office as Secretary if he persisted in his "refractioness."^ 
Six years later. May 13, 1691, they allude to " Mr. Quarry 
who had been dismissed by them from the Secretaryship 
for harboring pirates and other misdemeanors."^ Whether 
his complicity with the pirates, or " other misdemeanors " 
which he persisted in, was the real cause of his removal 
from the office of Secretary may be doubted in view of his 
subsequent career. However this may be, we find him 
in 1697 apparently in full favor again with their Lord- 
ships.^ It is scarcely credible that he would have been 
chosen to the higli position he afterwards occupied, both 
in regard to the King's revenue and as Judge of Admi- 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. T, 116. 

2 Ibid. 3 iii^i^ 127. * Ibid., 143. 



204 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ralty, had not liis character been fully vindicated from the 
charges of harboring pirates, and of a false report to cover 
up his conduct. 

The Proprietors at this time were, no doubt, sensitive 
upon this subject. Sir Thomas Lynch, the Governor of 
Jamaica, had shortly before complained to the Board of 
Trade and Plantations in England of the great damage 
that arose to liis Majesty's service, by the harboring and 
encouraging of pirates in Carolina and other governments 
and proprietaries, where there was no law to restrain them.^ 
Jamaica itself, it may be observed, had just been required 
by the Royal Government to adopt and enforce an act sent 
out from England for the suppression of this evil in her 
own waters.'^ Lyncli's complaint did not apply to Carolina 
alone, though it was the only province he mentioned by 
name ; nor does he mention the colony at Cliarles Town. 
His complaints are general, and may probably have been 
grounded upon the visits of pirates to Cape Fear, wdiich 
was their favorite resort. 

When the Enoflish colonists under their charter settled 
Carolina, pirates had been foi- many years occupying the 
coast at their pleasure. Indented as it was b}^ numerous 
harbors and inlets, it afforded them a safe refuge when pur- 
sued by their enemies, and most available places for refit- 
ting and repairing after a cruise. Here they could bring 
their prizes ; and if ancient tradition be true, here they 
buried their treasures. The coast country was a wilder- 
ness, inliabited only by scattered tribes of Indians ; and 
once within the headlands of the spacious liarbor, they 
were protected from interference and could plot their 
nefarious schemes at their leisure.^ 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca.^ vol. I, 847. 
'■^ Bryan Edwards's Hist. West Indies^ vol. I, 292. 
^ The Carolina Pirate (Hugh\son); Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 
i2tli Series, V, VI, VII, 12. 



UNDER THE PUOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 205 

Charles II had, upon his restoration, openly encouraged 
these public robbers, who, sometimes under the designation 
of privateers, had devastated and plundered the Spanish 
dominions. The business was esteemed just and laudable 
as long as it suited the Royal interest, and was treated as 
an honorable mode of warfare. From mere whim his 
Majesty had knighted Henry Morgan, a Welshman who 
had plundered Porto Bello and Panama. He not only 
knighted this buccaneer, but had made him Deputy Gov- 
ernor of the Island of Jamaica, the present Governor of 
which was now complaining of pirates. This body of 
plunderers was so formidable, indeed, as to strike terror 
into every quarter of the Spanish dominion. When peace 
was declared between England and Spain, many of these 
so-called privateers naturally developed into avowed 
pirates, and cared no more for England than Spain. But 
at first there was doubtless a ground of legitimate sym- 
pathy between the colonists in Carolina and these wild 
rovers. Hitherto their warfare — conducted under genu- 
ine or pretended commissions as privateers — had been 
principally, if not altogether, against the commerce and 
colonies of Spain. The Spaniards in Florida, though their 
government in Europe was actually in a treaty of peace 
with Great Britain, disregarded its obligations, and pur- 
sued the colonists of Carolina as their enemies. Were the 
feeble colonists in Carolina, having the Spaniards and 
Indians already to contend with, to incur the enmity and 
invite the hostility of these buccaneers that the European 
powers were unable or unwilling to suppress ? Were the 
Carolina colonists to be pillaged by the Spaniards at St. 
Augustine, and on their part to regard and treat these 
people, whether privateers or pirates, as enemies because 
they in turn preyed upon the Spaniards ? 

But however natural, and in some sort legitimate, was 



206 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the sympathy of the Carolina colonists with the enemies of 
the Spaniards — whoever they might be; however unjust 
it was to expect the weak colonists on the Ashley to enter 
into conflict with them, — there does not appear after all 
that there was any sufficient ground for the charge that the 
Carolinians were, in fact, aiding and abetting the pirates. 
Nor did the Proprietors quietly submit under the charge 
that their colony was to be blamed in the matter. Craven, 
the Palatine, met the accusation promptly and with spirit. 
On the 27th of May, 1684, he wrote to the Board of Trade 
that upon inquiry he had been informed that one Jacob 
Hall did touch at Carolina for wood and water as he 
came from Vera Cruz, but belonged not to Carolina, nor 
was any inhabitant of the province with him. He had 
stayed but a few days and then sailed for Virginia. Hall, 
continued the Earl, acted under Van Horn, who had a 
commission from the French, and his Majesty's pleasure 
not to suffer his subjects to take commissions from foreign 
princes not being known in Carolina was the reason, he 
conceived, why the privateer had not been secured. The 
Earl went on to say that he could not hear but of one more 
that ever was in Carolina, and that that one, not pretend- 
ing any commission from any foreign prince, and having 
taken some vessels, was indicted, found guilty, and exe- 
cuted. The captain, with two other of the most guilty of 
the company, had been hung in chains at the entrance of 
the port, and their bones hung there to that day, an ex- 
ample to others. Furthermore, Lord Craven plainly in- 
timated that Sir Thomas Lynch, who was now so virtuously 
calling attention to the harboring of pirates by others, was 
not himself free from implication with their business. 
Nevertheless, Lord Craven informs the Board of Trade 
that the Proprietors had sent directions to Carolina to pass 
an act like that of Jamaica for the suppression of the evil.^ 

^ Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 348. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 207 

On the 11th of March, 1684-85, the Proprietors again 
issued a commission to Joseph West as Governor, but it 
was not until September of that year that he resumed the 
office he had resigned to Morton two years before.^ In 
the meanwhile the difficulties of political affairs had 
greatly increased. The apportionment of the members of 
Parliament was still warmly opposed by the inhabitants 
of Berkeley County, whose able leaders were displaced 
from the Council upon the same pretexts that West had 
been, two years before, removed from the governorship ; 
viz. upon the charge of sending away Indian slaves. 
Another difficult question with which Governor West had 
now to contend was that in regard to the tenure of land. 
In the first Fundamental Constitutions and in the Agra- 
rian Laws the Proprietors had declared that lands should 
be held for the rent of a penny an acre, " or the value 
thereof," upon which terms and inducements many persons 
had emigrated to Carolina. But now it was declared that 
lands should be held only by indentures, in which the 
words " or the value thereof " were to be stricken out and 
a reservation added of reentry on failure of paying the 
quit-rent in money. To the opposition excited against 
this clear violation of the contract upon which the colo- 
nists had come out, and the reasonable request that, as 
money was scarce, the rents might be paid in merchantable 
produce of the land, the Proprietors only replied, '' We 
insist to sell our lands our own way." Then their Lord- 
ships recurred again to the old subject of the Funda- 
mental Constitutions. On the 12th of March, 1684, the 
day after they issued his commission, they wrote to Gov- 
ernor West instructions containing thirty-eight articles, 
which repealed all former instructions and temporary laws, 
and ordered the third set of Fundamental Constitutions 
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 113. 



208 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

(i.e. of January, 1682) to be subscribed and put in prac- 
tice. The members of the Grand Council, who repre- 
sented Ihe people, protested against this measure, which 
sought Avith so decisive a step to change the government 
of the colony.^ 

Governor West contended with these difficulties for a 
year without success, when, hampered by his instructions, 
and finding it impossible to reconcile the growing differ- 
ences between the Proprietors and the colonists, utterly 
disheartened he gave up, and, it is said, abandoned the 
province. Nothing is known of his subsequent career.^ 
Oldmixon, who wrote in 1708, mentions "Mr. Landgrave 
West's plantation," which implies that he was still living 
and owned the place; but whether alive or residing in the 
province is not more definitely stated.^ AVest had thus 
acted three times as Governor, on each occasion being the 
choice of the people, and twice under commission from 
the Proprietors. He was for a longer time Governor 
than any other under the Proprietors. In a government, 
says Rivers, carefully planned to be an aristocracy, and 
under the fostering direction of distinguished nobility in 
England, he, a plebeian, faithful, wise, and modest, became 
for fifteen years the guiding spirit of all that was good 
and successful.'^ 

But wise and good as he was, twice he was put aside by 
the Proprietors to suit their pride or their interest — once 
for Sir John Yeamans, not because of any fault of his, but 
because Sir John was a Landgrave, and the Proprietors 
could not as yet bring themselves to raise their humble, 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 139, 140; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. 
Ca., vol. I, 114. 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 141. 

3 British Empire in Am.^ vol. I, 513 ; Carroll's Coll.., vol. II, 452. 

4 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 141. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 209 

faithful servant to that dignity. The next time he was 
made to give way to a new-comer of wealth and influence. 
It was during his administration, February 16, 1684-85, 
that the Proprietors announced the death of King Charles 
II and the accession of his brother James, and instructed 
him to proclaim the new King at Charles Town and Lon- 
don,i which was accordingly done. 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 113. 



CHAPTER X 

1685-92 

On the retirement of West, the Council chose Morton 
as Governor; the Proprietors confirmed their choice and 
in September, 1685, sent him their commission. Gov- 
ernor Morton's second administration was still shorter than 
his first, but it is memorable for three important events: 
(1) The refusal of the representatives of the people to sub- 
scribe the Fundamental Constitutions ; and their conse- 
quent expulsion from Parliament. (2) The establishment 
in -Carolina of a revenue officer under his Majesty to en- 
force the customs and the navigation laws ; and the opposi- 
tion of the people to his demands. (3) An invasion b}^ 
the Spaniards, and the destruction of Lord Cardross's 
colony at Port Royal. 

The Parliament which convened in November, 1685, 
consisted of eight deputies of the Lords Proprietors and 
twenty commoners, of whom one was absent. The depu- 
ties were Joseph Morton, Robert Quarry, John Godfrey, 
Paul Grimball, Stephen Bull, Joseph Morton, Jr., John 
Fan-, and William Dunlop. Governor Morton, in obedi- 
ence to the instructions sent to Governor West, called 
on the members to subscribe the Fundamental Constitu- 
tions of 1682. Twelve of the nineteen refused to 
do so, because, as they said, they had already subscribed 
to those of July, 1669. The Governor thereupon ordered 
them to quit the house. They protested, without avail, 

210 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 211 

against the tyranny of their ejectment. The remaining 
seven enacted all the laws passed at that session of Parlia- 
ment.^ These were, however, but four in number: 
(1) The act which had been sent out for restraining and 
punishing privateers. (2) An act for the better security 
of the province against hostile invasions and attempts by sea 
or land, which the neighboring Spaniards or other enemy 
might make upon the same. (3) An act for reviving 
several acts theretofore made which had expired. 
(4) An act fixing the fees chargeable to the register of 
births, marriages, and burials.^ 

In 1685 George Muschamp arrived at Charles Town as 
the first Collector of the King's revenue, and the Governor 
and Council were instructed "not to fail to show their 
forwardness in assisting in the collection of the duty on 
tobacco transported to other colonies ; or seizing ships that 
presumed to trade contrary to the acts of navigation." ^ 
Muschamp's arrival introduced into Carolina a subject 
which had already been the cause of great animosity and 
contention in other colonies, especially in Barbadoes, — a 
grievance which was really the cause of the great revolu- ^ '^ 
tion of near a hundred years after. '^ 

The Navigation act, which was the basis of England's 
commercial prosperity, had originated in no enlarged view 
of statesmanship. Its rudiments were laid by the Long 
Parliament with the narrow view of crippling the West 
India sugar colonies which held out for the Royal cause, by 
stopping the gainful trade which they then carried on with 
the Dutch, and at the same time clipping the wings of 
those opulent and aspiring neighbors. The act prohibited 
all ships of foreign nations from trading with any English 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 141, 142. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. IT, 7-14. 

3 Chalmers's Pol. Ann.; Carroll's Coll., 322. 



212 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

plantations without license from the Council of State. In 
1651 the prohibition was extended also to the mother 
country, and no goods were suffered to be imported into 
England or any of its dependencies in any other than 
English bottoms, or in the ships of that European nation, 
of which the merchandise imported was the genuine 
growth or manufacture.^ 

The Barbadians vigorously protested against this meas- 
ure, which was aimed chiefly at their trade with the 
Netherlanders. A spirited declaration was drawn up and 
subscribed by Lord VVilloughby, the members of his Council, 
and the assembly of Barbadoes, stating their objections and 
expressing their firm resolution of opposing the act of 
Parliament to the utmost extent of their power. It is 
most interesting to observe that in their admirable ad- 
dress, the Barbadians, more than a hundred years before, 
anticipated the fundamental ground of the American Rev- 
olution by the bold declaration, — " they totally disclaimed 
the authority of the British Parliament in which they were 
not represented.'" To submit to such a jurisdiction, they 
asserted, would be a species of slavery far exceeding any- 
thing which the nation had yet suffered, and they affected 
not to doubt — they declared — that the courage which 
had enabled them to sustain the hardships and dangers 
which they had encountered in a region remote from 
their native clime, would continue to support them in 
the maintenance of that freedom without which life it- 
self would be uncomfortable and of little value.^ Brave 
words, which were sustained by an equally brave resist- 
ance ! But Barbadoes was reduced by the parlia- 
mentary forces, and the act imposed upon them. The 
Barbadians looked with confidence that, upon the Restora- 

^ Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 418. 
2 poyer's Uist. of Barbadoes, 53-55. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 213 

tion, this act would have been set aside, but the benefits 
resulting to England from a system which accident and 
resentment, rather than any ideas of true policy, had sug- 
gested to Cromwell, soon put an end to any such hopes. ^ 
The only material alteration made Avas to increase its 
rigor. By Statute 12 Car. II, c. 18, it was in addi- 
tion prescribed that the master and three-fourths of the 
mariners of every vessel importing goods into England or 
into any of its dependencies should also be English sub- 
jects.2 It was this law which Muschamp had now come 
to enforce upon this colony. 

The Carolina colonists, following the line of their first 
strict constructionist, ''Will Owen," who no longer, how- 
ever, appears in their Councils, took the position that 
their charter having been granted subsequently to the 
passing of the Navigation act, superseded tliat law in 
this province.^ Their resistance to the act, we may be 
sure, did not, however, rest solely upon this ingenious 
view. If it had not been suggested, the colonists would 
doubtless have done just as they did without this excuse. 
They disregarded Mr. Muschamp, and traded as they 
pleased. The point raised by the colonists seems, how- 
ever, to have given the government at home some con- 
cern. This reception of the King's officer by the colonists 
was at this time well calculated to give great anxiet}^ to 
the Lords Proprietors, for James II wanted but an excuse 
to revoke their charter. He had, indeed, already deter- 
mined to suppress all the Proprietary governments ; had in- 
structed the Attorney General to proceed by quo ivary^anto 
against them ; and proceedings were actually pending at 

1 Foyer's Hist, of Barbadoes, 77. 

2 Blackstone's Com.., vol. I, 419. 

3 Chalmers's Pol. Ann.; Carroll's Coll., 322 ; Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 
148. 



214 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

this time which resulted in the overthrow of the charter 
governments of New England. The Proprietors of Caro- 
lina, however, bent to the storm, and it passed over them 
for the time.^ 

The misfortunes of the Scotch exiles did not end upon 
their arrival in Carolina. It might have been supposed 
that the colony at Charles Town would have hailed with 
joy the establishment of another at Port Royal, if for no 
other than the selfish reason of the protection which such 
a colony would have interposed between them and the 
hostile Spaniards at St. Augustine. But, on the contrary, 
they received the Scotch exiles with little favor. Jealous- 
ies soon arose with regard to the political power of the new 
settlement. Lord Cardross claimed from his aofreement 
with the Proprietors coordinate authority with the Gov- 
ernors and Grand Council at Charles Town. This was re- 
sented, and Morton and his Council continuing to exercise 
jurisdiction over persons within the territory given to Lord 
Cardross, his Lordship with Hamilton, Montgomerie, and 
Dunlop joined in a communication, which was taken by 
Dunlop in person to the Governor and Council at Charles 
Town ; in which they with dignity and forbearance ex- 
postulated against this conduct, reminding them that both 
communities were under the same King and the same 
Lords Proprietors ; that it was against the interest of either 
to allow jealousies, especially at a time when they had 
ground to apprehend a Spanish invasion. Dunlop would 
inform them — they wrote — of the " sinistrous dealings" 
of two noted Indians, Wina and Antonio^ who were insti- 
gating the Indians around to hostilities among themselves, 
and against their settlement, and were entertaining a spy 
from St. Augustine or St. Mary's. They requested the 

1 Chalmers's Pol. Ann. ; Carroll's Coll.. .323 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 149; Colonial Records of No. Ca.., vol. I, 352, 353. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 215 

Governor and Council at Charles Town to deliver to Dun- 
lop six guns the Lords Proprietors had promised them. 
These overtures met with a rude repulse ; the Grand 
Council persisted in their complaints — they even went 
further and summoned Lord Cardross before them, as if 
to answer for some high misdemeanor ; and when he did 
not come, they affected to treat his failure to appear as a 
contempt, though his Lordship, overcome by the heat of 
a climate to which he was not accustomed, lay at Port 
Royal prostrate with fever.^ Another instance is here 
presented of the ill-judgment and impracticability of all 
the Proprietors' schemes. Two jurisdictions were set up 
without a clear line of demarcation between them, and 
with doubtful and conflicting powers. Lord Cardross, 
disgusted with his arrest and ill-usage, abandoned the 
struggle and, fortunately for himself, retired before the 
blow fell upon the colony, of which his associates and 
himself had in vain warned the Governor and Council at 
Charles Town. He returned to Scotland and took an 
active part in the political revolution which was then at 
hand.2 

The two Dunlops, William and Alexander, who came 
out with Lord Cardross, were both men of influence, and 
became of considerable temporary consequence in the 
colony. William, who bore the communication to the 
Governor and Council, did not get the guns for which he 
applied ; but on the l8th of November the Pi'oprietors 
wrote that they had appointed Alexander Dunlop sheriff 
of Port Royal, and directed the guns to be delivered to 
him or to Lord Cardross.^ They at the same time recom- 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 142, 143; Appendix, 407-409; 
Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 84, 85. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 140 ; 01dm ixon, Carroll's Coll., 
411. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 116. 



216 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mend William Duiilop to the consideration of the Gov- 
ernor and Council at Charles Town, and on the 23d of 
that month he appears as a deputy among them.^ It is 
probable that it was through his influence the act was 
passed attempting to provide for the better security of 
the province against Spanish invasion. But, beside the 
passing of the acts which recognized a state of war as 
actually existing between the Spaniards and the Caro- 
linians, nothing was done to meet the threatened emer- 
gency. 

Lord Cardross had warned Governor Morton and his 
Council of the threatened invasion, but in vain. They 
would not even send him the dismounted and useless 
guns lying at old Charles Town, which had been prom- 
ised by the Proprietors, until ordered to do so by their 
Lordships in November, 1685. The Scotch colony at 
Port Royal was utterly destroyed in consequence, but 
it did not suffer alone. The Governor himself was made 
to feel the blow. 

In the summer of 1686 the Spaniards appeared.^ They 
came suddenly Avith three galleys, — a hundred white 
men, with an auxiliary force of Indians and negroes, — 
and landed on the Edisto. They sacked the houses of 
Governor Morton and of Mr. Grimball, the Secretary of 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 9. After remaining in the colony for 
some years and taking an active part in its affairs, William Dnnlop re- 
turned to Scotland in 1690, and became principal of the University of 
Glasgow. Howe\s Hist. Fresh. Ch.., 117. 

2 The exact date of the appearance of the Spaniards is nowhere given. 
Chalmers states that it was " towards the end of the year 108G." But it 
certainly took place before October, for the Parliament was assembled, 
and passed an act in consequence of it, on the loth of October. It 
was certainly later than March, as Edward Randolph refers to it as hap- 
pening in 1G86, by the old style the year beginning in March. The calling 
of the Parliament, the appeal to the Lords Proprietors, etc., which took 
place, would indicate that it must have been some time before October. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 217 

the province, who were at Charles Town, and pillaged 
them to the value of X3000 sterling, carrying off money, 
plate, and thirteen slaves of the Governor, and murdering 
his brother-in-law. They then turned upon the Scotch 
settlers at Port Royal, but twenty-five of whom were in 
sufficient health to oppose them. The Spaniards killed 
some, took others captive, whom they whipped in a 
barbarous manner, and plundered and utterly destroyed 
the settlement. The few who remained of this unfortu- 
nate company found refuge in Charles Tovvn.^ 

Party strife Avas now forgotten in the excitement. An 
appeal was made to the Lords Proprietors, and in the 
memorial sent they were prayed to represent the matter 
to his Majesty.^ But the Carolina colonists did not wait 
for an answer to this appeal, which could not reach them 
for months. They determined to take the matter into 
their own hands, and to give the Spaniards a lesson 
which would deter them from any repetition of insult and 
invasion. Unable to defend the wide extent of their 
territory at all points, they determined that the best 
measure of defence was boldly to strike at the heart of 
the enemy. The Governor and Council countenancing 
the scheme, a Parliament was summoned, and on the 15th 
of October an act passed for the immediate invasion of 
the Spanish territory. An assessment of c£500, equiva- 
lent probably to about -110,000, was made, and Joseph Pen- 
darvis and William Popell were appointed Receivers of the 
moneys raised. All the powers of the Grand Council 
were vested for the time in the Governor and any four 
of the Council. Preparations were all completed. Two 
vessels were fitted out, and four hundred men were ready 
to sail for the conquest of St. Augustine, when the ex- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 143, 144 ; Appendix, 425, 443. 
'^ Ibid. 



218 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

pedition was suddenly stopped by the arrival from Bar- 
badoes of James Colleton, brother of the Proprietor, who 
had been created a Landgrave, and brought with him 
a commission as Governor of Carolina. He threatened 
to hang any of the colonists who persisted in their project, 
and they reluctantly abandoned it.^ This was the un- 
fortunate beginning of a weak and disastrous rule. 

James Colleton was one of the distinguished family of 
CoUetons from Barbadoes. Like his father. Sir John, and 
his brother, Sir Peter, he had occupied a prominent posi- 
tion there, and had been a member of the Assembly of that 
island from the parish of St. John's. To his dignity of 
Landgrave, 48,000 acres of land were inalienably annexed 
under the Constitutions. In an old map of 1715 Colleton's 
baronies are put down as covering most of what is still 
known as St. John's Parish, Berkeley ,2 and we may safel}^ 
assume that in laying out and naming the parishes in 1706, 
that parish, as well as the parish of St. John's, Colleton, 
received their names from the old home of the family 
in Barbadoes. Unfortunately, James Colleton possessed 
neither the address nor abilities of the other members 
of his family. His career in Carolina began most unhappil}^ 
His conduct from the outset aroused the deepest resent- 
ment of the colonists. 

The Proprietors, threatened at this time with the quo 
warranto proceedings and the forfeiture of their charter, — 
subservient to the Royal humor, which was now intent 
upon preserving a nominal peace with Spain, — promptly 
approved the action of the new Governor. While the 
colonists were burning with indignation at so unexpected 
and unworthy a termination of their efforts, the Lords 
Proprietors wrote to Colleton : " We are glad that you 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 144 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 15. 

2 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1886, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 219 

have stopped the expedition against St. Augustine. If it 
had proceeded, Mr. Morton, Colonel Godfrey, and others 
might have answered it with their lives.'' ^ They proceed 
meanly to justify the raid of the Spaniards upon the 
ground that the colonists had harbored pirates who were 
warring on them, and to argue " that every rational man 
must have foreseen that the Spaniards thus provoked " 
(i.e. by the harboring of pirates) would assuredly retaliate ; 
that the clause in the patent (i.e. the Royal charter) that 
had been relied on to justify the measure " meant only a 
pursuit in heat of victory, but not a deliberate making of 
war on the King of Spain's subjects within her own terri- 
tories, nor do we claim any such power. No man," they 
wrote, "can think that the dependencies of England can 
have power to make war upon the King's allies without 
his knowledge or consent." ^ This angry message on the 
part of the Proprietors, manifestly prepared rather for 
the political atmosphere of London than with regard to the 
interests of the colony in Carolina, was, to say the least, a 
most disingenuous statement of the case. The Proprietors 
had apparently forgotten that, but a short time before, 
the Earl of Craven had written to the Board of Trade, 
specifically denying that the Carolinians had ever harbored 
pirates.^ The cause of the intense hostility of the Spaniards 
to the Carolinians was far deeper and more abiding. It 
had its origin, as we have seen, in the charters under 
which the Proprietors claimed. The long-threatened 
attack was made because the Spaniards claimed the land 
upon which Lord Cardross's colony was settled, and re- 
garded the colony as another encroachment on their terri- 
tory. It is true that the Governor of St. Augustine 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 144. 

2 Chalmers's PoL Ann.; Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 319, 320. 

3 Ante, 206. 



220 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

disowned the invasion, and declared that it was made 
without his orders ; but it is equally true that he, at 
the same time, refused to give up the slaves taken by 
the raiders without an order from the King of Spain. ^ 
If the King of Spain could thus connive at the war made 
by his subjects upon the English colonists, were the colo- 
nists to remain supine and passively await their own de- 
struction, while the Proprietors, three thousand miles 
away, were consulting the diplomacy of the court of 
St. James whether or not to permit retaliation? 

But the provision in the charter upon which the colo- 
nists relied explicitly justified their conduct. The fif- 
teenth clause recited and provided : " And because that in 
so remote a country and scituate among so many barbarous 
nations as well of savages as other eneynies pirates and 
robbers may probably be feared," authority was expressly 
given to the Proprietors "by themselves or their captains 
or other officers to levy muster and train up all sorts of 
men of what condition so ever, or wheresoever born, 
whether in the said province or elsewhere, for the time 
being to make war and pursue the enemy aforesaid^ as ivell hy 
sea as hy land, yea, even without the limits of the said prov- 
ince and by God's assistance to vanquish and take them 
and being taken, to put them to death by the law of war," 
etc.2 There is nothing in the grant of sovereign power to 
the viceregal government of the Proprietors restricting it 
to "only a pursuit in heat of victor}^"; the power given 
was '"for the time being to make ivar'' and to pursue the 
enemies beyond the limits of the province. The plea, 
therefore, of the want of authority to allow the colonists 
to strike a manly blow in their own defence was a paltry 

1 Edward Randolph to Board of Trade, Appendix Hist. Sketches of 
So. Ca. (Rivers), 448, 444. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 39. 



UNDER THE PROPRlETAllY GOVERNMENT 221 

excuse to propitiate the King, whose displeasure had 
arisen from other causes. 

The Proprietors ordered "a civil letter" to be addressed 
to the Governor of St. Augustine inquiring by what 
authority he acted.^ Thus, it will be observed, they tliem- 
selves regarded the attack as no mere raid of unauthor- 
ized pillagers, but an invasion sanctioned by the Spanish 
Government; a view which, as we have seen, was subse- 
quently sustained by the action of the Spanish Governor 
in spite of his denial. In further confirmation of this, a 
new Governor having come to St. Augustine, he dis- 
patched a friar to Charles Town to treat with the gov- 
ernment here upon the subject. 

And now fresh cause of offence was given by Colleton 
to the people, and grave suspicion aroused as to the 
honesty of his conduct. He refused to consult with the 
"commoners" in his Council, as the representatives of 
the people were termed, and only mentioned the Spanish 
messenger to them when he had to ask their consent to 
his maintenance out of the public treasury. Passing by 
" the bloody insolence the Spaniards had committed," Col- 
leton, who could not pursue them in war, without the 
King's consent, now enters into a treaty of commerce with 
their agent, the friar. In pursuance of this agreement, the 
Spanish Governor sent what he considered the actual cost 
of the plunder which had been carried off ; but would not 
return the captured negroes, who were actually employed 
in building a fort near St. Augustine. The colonists com- 
plained bitterly of the Governor's conduct. He had acted, 
it was said, contrary to the honor of the English nation, 
and for a little filthy lucre had buried in silence atrocities 
upon Englishmen who wanted not courage to do them- 
selves honorable satisfaction.^ They were, no doubt, all 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 145. 2 jua., 145 j Appendix, 425. 



222 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the more chagrined when they afterwards learned that 
the Spaniards, upon hearing that they were coming to 
aveng-e their wrongs, had left their town and their castle 
and fled into the Avoods to save themselves. The expedi- 
tion against St. Augustine was stopped for the time. But 
it was only postponed. The rupture between England and 
Spain in a few years allowed its renewal ; but without the 
success which would probably have been attained at this 
time. 

This excitement had not yet abated when Mr. Mus- 
champ, in April, 1687, seized a vessel for violating the 
revenue law, upon the ground that four-fifths of the crew 
were Scotchmen and not Englishmen — the Navigation act 
not permitting Scotchmen the benefit of its provisions. 
The evidence, upon the trial, Muschamp had to admit, was 
not very clear ; but the colonists disdained to rest the case 
upon the failure of proof. The court released the vessel 
and distinctly intimated, it is said, that had the evidence 
been ever so clear, the decision would not have been other- 
wise, as the charter gave the colonists the right to trade 
with Scotland and Ireland, and that they had the right 
to transport their own product in ships navigated by 
Scotchmen. Mr. Muschamp's report was referred to 
Powis, the Attorney General of England, who gave it 
as his opinion that the trade, i.e. that to Scotland and 
Ireland, was most directly contrary to the acts of Parlia- 
ment ; and though the charter of the colony was subse- 
quent to the navigation acts, there was no color for the 
claim that it superseded those statutes unless it was so 
expressly provided. Upon the point whether it was so 
expressly provided in the charter, he gave no opinion, but 
advised that the charter should be inspected, and if it 
should appear that the charter did exempt the colonists 
from its operation, he would then be prepared to give his 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 223 

opinion whether an act of Parliament could be overridden 
by a charter.^ 

The Proprietors were not slow in perceiving the drift 
and intimation of this opinion and were prompt in dis- 
claiming any right to exemption from the navigation laws, 
which, they humbly conceived, "must be the discourse of 
ignorant and loose people only and not of any concerned 
in the government." They had no doubt but that the 
ship seized by Mr. Muschamp would have been condemned 
if there had been sufficient proof. They did not know, 
they said, what encouragement any ships from Scotland 
or Ireland could have to trade at Carolina, the inhabitants 
having hardly overcome their want of victuals, and having 
nothing to export but a few skins and a little cedar, both 
of which did not amount yearly to ^2000.^ 

A large majority of the representatives of the people 
had, as we have seen, refused their assent to the act of the 
Fundamental Constitutions of 1682 which Governor West 
had been instructed to have subscribed, and which in- 
structions Governor Morton had attempted to enforce. 
The refractory commoners had been excluded from the 
House, and, returning to their homes, spread disaffection 
everywhere. Tlie dissenters, observes Rivers, who had 
left England in considerable numbers, driven by their 
apprehension of persecution under the coming reign of 
James II, had at first, in changing from a worse to a bet- 
ter condition, naturally supported the submissive party in 
the colony. In particular, Joseph Blake, whose daughter 
Morton had married, added his influence in checking and 
allaying " the extravagant spirit " of the discontented. 
But the more extravagant spirit of the instructions sent 
to Carolina threw the majority of the people, however, 

1 Chalmers's Pol. Ann. ; Carroll's Coll., 342, 345. 

2 Ibid. 



224 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

differing in their principles on some matters, into the ranks 
of the opposition party. 

The Proprietors had hitherto been greatly disappointed 
in the character of their Governors, who had generally, as 
they considered, opposed their views or exerted them- 
selves in too feeble a manner to promote them. Sayle 
had been a good man, but a weak Governor. Yeamans 
had proved ambitious and selfish, and inclined to make 
the interest of Carolina subservient to that of Barbadoes. 
West had been wise and prudent, but he had not had 
the force — if he had the will — to meet and encounter 
the party who were beginning to demand constitutional 
liberty under the charter, and to refuse to be governed 
except under its provisions. Then they had tried Morton, 
— a new man, unconnected with the early disputes in the 
colony, and who, for the substantial civil and religious 
liberty he was to enjoy, was willing to accept the forms 
of the Fundamental Constitutions, especially when flat- 
tered with the dignity of a Landgrave under them. The 
Proprietors soon, however, found that Morton's principles 
inclined him to their opponents rather than to themselves. 
But in Landgrave Colleton they reposed entire confidence, 
expecting much from his talents and still more from his 
attachments. He built himself a fine mansion at old 
Charles Town, received from the Parliament an ampler 
support than had been enjoyed by former Governors, and, 
secure of the good will of the Proprietors through the 
influence of his brother, he no doubt looked forward to 
prosperity and happiness in the new home to which he 
brought his family. The Proprietors, indeed, had never 
been more faithfully represented.^ It might have been 
better for them had Colleton's devotion to their interests 
less blinded him to that of the province, which was, in 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 151. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 225 

fact, inseparable from their own. His instructions required 
him to punish the former Governor and officers for various 
offences, to execute the hiw against pirates with rigor, and 
to put down the faction consisting of men of various views 
and avowing different principles ; " Sprang up as we are 
assured," said the Lords Proprietors, "as rampant as if the 
people had been made wanton by many ages of prosperity." ^ 

The Proprietors, in their zeal to appease the Royal au- 
thorities, had sneered at the commerce of their province, 
and yet out of the seven acts passed during Colleton's ad- 
ministration before his rupture with the Parliament, five of 
them relate to the commerce of the place, indicating that 
notwithstanding all the troubles of the colony its business 
was steadily increasing. The acts passed were (1) " For 
servants hereafter arriving without indentures or con- 
tracts " ; (2) " For the preventing seamen from contracting 
great debts" ; (3) " For regulating the entryes of vessels," 
etc. ; (4) " For the tryall of small and meane causes " ; 
(5) " For the levying an assessment of eight hundred 
pounds " ; (6) " To ascertain the prices of commodityes 
of the countryes growth " ; (7) " To ascertain damages 
upon protested bills of exchanges." ^ 

The last of these statutes was passed on the 23d of 
July, 1687. There were no other enactments during 
Colleton's administration, nor was there any other legis- 
lation for three years. During this time fierce contests 
distracted the several parliaments that were held. In 
1687 a committee, consisting of the Governor, Paul Grim- 
ball and William Dunlop, deputies, I>ernard Schenkingh, 
Thomas Smith, John Fan-, and Joseph Blake, commoners, 
were appointed to consider whether the Fundamental Con- 
stitutions might be modified in any way to make them ac- 

1 Chalmers's PoL An7i., 323, 324. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 30-38. 



226 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ceptable both to the Proprietors and to the people. '' The 
work grew voluminously," it was said, and was then aban- 
doned amidst angry discussions ; the people declined to 
regard any other set but that sent out with Governor Sayle 
in 1669.1 At length Colleton, on the 14th of February, 
1687-88, in some passion produced a letter from the 
Proprietors, dated March 3, 1686-87, in which they 
" utterly denied the Fundamental Constitutions of July, 
1669, declaring them to be but a copy of an imperfect 
original." As the Proprietors manifestly did not know 
their own minds, the delegates of the people, naturally 
impatient and indignant at this trifling with their inter- 
ests and their rights, and never having assented to any 
set as required by the charters, " unanimously declared 
that the governmeyit is now to he directed and managed 
wholly and solely according to the said charters.^'' They 
then went a step further and " denied that any bill must 
necessarily pass the grand council before it can be read 
in parliament." During two sessions the Governor and 
the deputies of the Proprietors insisting on proceeding 
according to the Fundamental Constitutions, and the dele- 
gates of the people refusing to do so, all legislative pro- 
ceedings were blocked; not even the militia act was 
passed which was necessary for the safety of the colony. 
The delegates proposed, for the maintenance of peace 

1 Oldmixon, who was a tutor in Benjamin Blake's family, and had, 
therefore, excellent means of information, gives the names of the com- 
mittee as stated in the text. He states that this committee "drew up a 
new form of government differing in many articles from the former to 
which they gave the title of standing laws; and temporary laios . . . 
But neither Lords Proprietors nor the people of Carolina accepted of 
them." The address to Sothell, which contains so admirable a summary 
of the history of the colony to its date, gives the account in the text, i.e. 
that the work was abandoned amidst angry discussion. Rivers has fol- 
lowed this account, and we have preferred to do so likewise. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMEI^T 227 

and justice, to assent and approve any law as required by 
the direction of the Royal charter, but the Governor and 
deputies refusing to allow any to be acted upon until first 
passed by the Grand Council, nothing was done. Finally, 
in December, 1689, the Proprietors instructed Colleton to 
call no more parliaments without orders from them, " un- 
less some very extraordinary occasion should require 
it." As the acts usually ran but for twenty-three months 
only, the consequence of these instructions was that in 
1690 not one statute law was in force in the colony.^ 

The issue was now fairly made between the people, on 
the one hand, contending for constitutional government 
under the charter and the Proprietors, on the other, claim- 
ing to govern by arbitrary instructions uncontrolled even 
by the terms of the " unalterable " Fundamental Constitu- 
tions which they had sent out with the colony under 
Sayle. In the meanwhile there was no law in the prov- 
ince, and Colleton proceeded to govern by his own will. 
He attempted vigorously to exact payment of quit-rent for 
every acre whether under cultivation or not ; he forbade 
all inland trade with Indians, in his avarice, as it was 
charged, to monopolize the benetit for himself ; and he 
imprisoned and fined a clergyman X 100 for preaching what 
he considered a seditious sermon.^ To enable him to main- 
tain his authority, he requested the Proprietors to appoint 
only such deputies as he knew would support his govern- 
ment. This led to an outbreak. Letters from England, 
containing deputations of the Proprietors obnoxious to the 
people, were seized and suppressed. The people impris- 
oned Paul Grimball, the Secretary of the province, and 
took possession of all the public records. The little com- 
munity was in a state of rebellion, and every man acted as lie 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 152, 153; Appendix, 422, 423. 

2 IhicU 150. 



228 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

thouglit proper, without regard to legal authority and in con- 
tempt of the Governor and other officers of the Proprietors. 

In this emergency a number of the colonists were in- 
duced to sign a petition for the establishment of martial law, 
and without consulting the Commons, though his instruc- 
tions from the Proprietors provided for his summoning 
them if an extraordinary occasion should require it, 
acting only on the advice of the deputies of the Pro- 
prietors, martial law was declared by Colleton at the head 
of the militia, who, ignorant of his purpose, had assembled 
under his call made upon pretence that some danger 
threatened the country. The members of the Assembly 
thereupon met without summons, and resolved that this 
proceeding of the Governor was an encroachment upon 
their liberties and an unwarrantable exercise of power at a 
time when the colony was in no danger from a foreign 
enemy. The Governor, however, persisted and attempted 
to put his martial law into execution, but the disaf- 
fection was too great to allow him to do so. Even tlie 
signers of the petition deserted him and declaring that 
they had been deceived, now joined in the cry against such 
an " illegal tyrannical and oppressive way of government." 
In the face of this Colleton quailed and shrank from 
the exercise of the power he had assumed. The courts 
were allowed to sit, and he attempted to exonerate him- 
self on the ground that the delegates had refused to pass 
the militia act, and lie feared an invasion by the Spaniards. 
The latter excuse was known to be unfounded; and to the 
former thirteen delegates replied, under oath, that they 
had proposed to pass the act. Indeed, as the people 
themselves constituted the only military force in the 
colon}^ this attempt to proclaim martial law was a great 
blunder as well as a political crime. ^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 154, 155; Appendix, 424, 425. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 229 

The colony was verging upon anarchy when the arrival 
of one Seth Sothell who, as a Proprietor, claimed the 
government, put a new phase upon the commotions and 
overthrew Colleton's government, setting up one in its 
stead, which, in its turn, was repudiated by the Proprietors. 

The course of events in England, in the meanw*hile, had 
been rapidly tending to the great revolution of 1688, 
which drove James II from the throne ; and on the 1st of 
March, 1688-89, the Proprietors forwarded to Carolina the 
order of council to proclaim King William and Queen 
Mary, and annexed the oath to be taken. ^ Nor were the 
other American colonies much freer from commotion 
than Carolina. The tyranny of Andros was producing 
throughout New England a powerful popular reaction in 
favor of their charter governments. The failure of Lord 
Baltimore's deputies to proclaim William and Mary gave 
an opportunity to the disaffected Protestants to incite a 
revolt which resulted in the overthrow of his Lordship's 
charter, and the establishment of a Royal government. 
Pennsylvania was torn by various internal disputes, 
chiefly the religious schism caused by George Keith, the 
Quaker, and Penn was also soon to be deprived of his 
governorship. Delaware, Virginia, New York, and New 
Jersey, as well as New England, were now governed under 
the King's commission. Yet the Proprietors of Carolina 
continued an uninterrupted control over their vast prov- 
ince, because, enjojdng "the hereditary right of com- 
plaining in person of their wrongs, they could interest a 
powerful body in their favor." ^ 

Sothell was a man of remarkable, if not of good, char- 
acter and of great ability. He had been sent in 1680 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 122. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 149, 150, Rivers quoting Revolt Am. Col., 
264. 



230 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to regulate the distracted affairs in the colony at Albe- 
marle, and on his voyage out had been captured by Alge- 
rine pirates, three years thus elapsing before his arrival 
in America. He bore with him the certificate of his 
authority dated at Whitehall, September, 1681, which is 
important as declaring the views of the Proprietors to his 
rio^lit of cTovernment under the Fundamental Constitutions. 
It reads thus : — 

" Whereas Seth Sothell hath bought the Earl of Clarendon's share 
in Carolina and is thereby become one of the true and absolute Lords 
Proprietors of the Province of Carolina and whereas by virtue of the 
Fundamental Constitutions it is provided that the eldest proprietor that 
shall be in Carolina shall be governor you are to obey him as such if 
there be no elder proprietor than himself." 

Instead of settling matters at Albemarle, his administra- 
tion there was so marked by selfishness and rapacity that 
the people rose, deposed and banished him.^ He sought 
refuge in South Carolina, and arrived here just in time 
to take part in the disturbed condition of affairs in this 
colony. His right to the government under the Constitu- 
tions, which the Proprietors were upholding, was clear by 
their terms, and for this he also held the certificate of the 
Proprietors themselves. He was received with insult by 
the Governor's party, but Avelcomed by the people as a 
refuge from Colleton's tyranny. Andrew Percival, who 
had been Governor of the attempted colony on the Edisto, 
Muschamp, the King's revenue officer, Berresford, who had 
been clerk of the peace, Ralph Izard, and John Harris 
with five hundred of the best people petitioned him to 
issue writs for a Parliament.^ This he did, as he had the 

1 All the wrongs and oppressions with which Hewatt charges him as 
having been committed in South Carolina, were really those for which he 
was driven out of the colony at Albemarle. Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. I. 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 155. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 231 

right to do, if the Constitutions were of any force ; but he 
followed this step up with another measure which was 
clearly illegal. He removed the deputies of the other 
Proprietors who were opposed to him and appointed Mus- 
champ, Berresford, and Harris in their places.^ The colony 
at Albemarle had banished him. His Parliament at 
Charles Town now banished Colleton. Himself a refugee 
from Albemarle, he becomes the expeller of others from 
Charles Town. Lieutenant Colonel Bull, Major Colleton, 
and Paul Grimball were disqualified for holding any civil 
or military office because they had acted with Colleton, 
and Thomas Smith because he had written the petition for 
the establishment of martial law. 

The adherents of Colleton did not yield without a 
struggle. They could not, as supporters of the Constitu- 
tions, deny Sothell's right to supersede Colleton, — that 
was too plain by the letter of that instrument, which the 
Proprietors had been so insistent upon enforcing, — and 
Sothell had, moreover, their own written word for his right 
to do so. But they demanded that before assuming office 
he should declare his approval of the Proprietors' instruc- 
tions as a rule of government. Placards were posted in 
public places charging him with treason and calling upon 
the people to withhold their obedience to his authority. 

The Lords Proprietors, with their usual vacillation 
and faithlessness, abandoned Colleton. Before hearing of 
Sothell's assumption of the government, they had, on 
the 6th of October, 1690, appointed Thomas Smith Gov- 
ernor. But in May they had heard that Sothell was at 
Charles Town and had taken upon himself the administra- 
tion, and they write that they are well pleased that he will 
submit to their instructions for the government. They 
hope he is too wise a man to claim any power but by virtue of 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 127. 



232 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

them ; for, they go on to observe, in direct contradiction to 
their own declaration held by Sothell, that no single Pro- 
prietor by virtue of his patent had any right to the gov- 
ernment or to exercise any jurisdiction unless especially 
empowered by the rest. 

Hewatt and other writers have spoken of Sothell as an 
usurper,^ but such he certainly was not under the Funda- 
mental Constitutions, which the Proprietors persisted in 
maintaining to be of force. By these it was expressly pro- 
vided that " the eldest of the Lords Proprietors who shall 
be personally in Carolina shall of course be the Palatine 
deputy," and if no Proprietor be in Carolina, nor heir 
apparent of any, then " the eldest man of the Landgraves." ^ 
Under this clause, as we have seen in the last chapter, the 
Proprietors, in 1684, objected to the selection by the Coun- 
cil of Colonel Quarry as Governor upon the death of Kyrle, 
because the government belonged of right to Morton as the 
eldest Landgrave in the province at the time, there being 
then no Proprietor present. So again we shall see them 
excusing themselves, in 1699, for not having obtained the 
approval of the Royal Government to Blake's appointment 
as Governor upon the ground that Blake did not exercise 
the office by virtue of appointment, but by virtue of his 
proprietorship. And Sothell now held their certificate or 
warrants that he was to be recognized and obeyed, because, 
by the Fundamental Constitutions, " it is provided that 
the eldest proprietor that shall be in Caiolina shall be 
governor." The colonists might have objected to this com- 
mission, as they did not recognize the Fundamental Con- 
stitutions ; but if they waived that point and accepted him 
under the letter or certificate which he held from their 
Lordships Avithout regard to the reason assigned, it cer- 
tainly did not lay with the Proprietors to object. The 

1 Hewatt's Hist., vol. I, 103. 2 statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 50. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 233 

point the Proprietors made was that no Proprietor could 
act as Governor without the assent of the others, but it 
was not so written, and until the Constitutions were for- 
mally altered they remained the law, at least for them. The 
affair presents still another instance of the instability and 
insincerity of all parties. Here we have the Proprietors 
denying the provisions of their favorite laws, and the 
people, who had so long been resisting, now for their 
immediate purpose standing upon them, because for the 
time they served their interest. 

The Proprietors were wise enough, however, for the 
present not to make the issue, but summoned Sothell to 
return to England and answer to all the charges against 
him from both colonies. Sothell did not obey the sum- 
mons, but continued to act as Governor for eighteen months 
longer. Finally, in November, 1692, the Proprietors in 
England wrote to him that he should cease to rule and 
commanded him to yield obedience to Colonel Philip 
Ludwell, whom they had commissioned to succeed him. 
For reasons of his own, he having now offended the people 
who had sustained him, he yielded to the demand and left 
the colony. 

Whatever may have been Sothell's private character, 
however avaricious and disreputable, however tyrannical 
and oppressive his conduct for personal gain, yet the wis- 
dom and liberality of the laws he enacted, the legislative 
activity displayed in restoring stability to the colony, and 
his judicious conduct in promoting the just wishes of the 
people, throw a doubt, observes Rivers, as to the malignant 
character that had been ascribed to him as a public officer. 
He it was who had the wisdom to see the usefulness and 
noble character of the French and Swiss, wlio were now 
coming into the province in considerable numbers and fill- 
ing up waste places in Craven County on tlie Cooper and 



234 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Santee, which were soon to blossom as the rose under their 
skilful and laborious cultivation ; and the first to constitute 
them citizens as free born in the colony, and of equal 
rights with the other settlers. 

So, too, under his administration, the first act for the 
government of negro slaves was passed. This act fol- 
lowed generally the Barbadian slave code ; but, in more 
than one respect, it was an improvement upon that law, 
especially in providing for the punishment of an}^ one kill- 
ing a slave. It provided, also, for the slaves' comfort, and 
required that the}^ should have convenient clothes. ^ 

Sothell yielded to Ludwell, and returned to his estate 
in North Carolina, where he died in 1694 ; and it is said 
that much of the wealth he had accumulated there was 
recovered by those from whom he had unjustly taken it. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 343. 



CHAPTER XI 

1692-94 

Colonel Philip Ludwell had been secretary to Sir 
William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, and had taken 
an active part with him in the suppression of Bacon's 
Rebellion. He had been the hero of Bland's capture ; 
and, after Sir William's death, had married Dame Frances, 
the widow of that fiery cavalier.^ In 1689 he had been 
appointed Governor of all that part of the province of 
Carolina that lies north and east of Cape Fear, to super- 
sede Sothell at Albemarle.^ Although the titles of North 
and South Carolina now began to be used in some official 
papers, there was no such division of the province at this 
time ; on the contrary, the Proprietors were now attempt- 
ing a plan of consolidating the two colonies into one gov- 
ernment for the whole province.^ On the 2d of November, 

1 Ludwell was the third husband of Dame Frances. This lady had the 
singular fortune of being the wife of three Governors in succession. Her 
first husband was Governor Samuel Stephens of Albemarle ; her second, 
Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia ; her third, Colonel Philip Lud- 
well, now Governor of Carolina. Hawkes's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 447. 

2 Colonial Becords of No. Ca.^ vol. I, 362. 

3 Commissions of Governors of North Carolina usually ran as stated in 
the text ; those of South Carolina ran, "of that part of the province which 
lies south and west of Cape Fear." So the enacting words of statutes of 
South Carolina usually were in the names of the Palatine and the rest of 
the Lords Proprietors "by and with the advice and consent of the rest 
of the members of the General Assembly now met at Charles Town for 
the South West part of this province." This was the usual form after 
1690, but sometimes the word "province" only was used. 

235 



236 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

1691, Lud well's commission was changed from that of 
Governor of the territory to the north and east of Cape 
Fear, to that of Governor of Carolina, and he was directed 
to issue writs for the choice of twenty delegates for the 
freemen of Carolina, — five for Albemarle County, five for 
Colleton County, five for Berkele}^ County, and five for 
Craven County, — to meet in such place and at such time 
as any three or more of the deputies should appoint. The 
bounds of these counties were defined as follows : ^ Albe- 
marle County was restricted to the small but well-settled 
district between the Roanoke River and Virginia; Craven 
County occupied all the great extent of territory from the 
Roanoke to Sewee Bay; Berkeley, that between Sewee 
Bay and the Edisto, and Colleton County between the 
Stono and Combahee. By additional instructions, how- 
ever. Governor Ludwell was directed that if he found it 
impracticable to have the inhabitants of Albemarle send 
delegates to the General Assembly held in South Carolina, 
he was then to issue writs for seven delegates to be chosen 
for Berkeley, seven for Colleton, and six for that part of 
Craven County that lay south and west of Cape Fear; 
and he was empowered to appoint a Deputy Governor for 
North Carolina.^ With these instructions, original and 
additional, there were sent also another set of private 
instructions with minute directions to inquire into the 
mismanagement of former Governors and the grounds of 
popular complaint. He was to inquire into the charges 
made by Percival, Quarry, Izard, Muschamp, Harris, and 
Berresford against Governor Colleton ; to make inquiry as 
to the alleged killing of several Indians, and, if proved, 
to have the guilty persons indicted and punished ; to in- 
quire by what authority Berresford had acted as deputy, 
and whether Sothell had refused to allow deputies of the 
1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 373. 2 /^^-^^^ 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 237 

Proprietors to act ; by what authority Robert Quarry sat 
as judge or sheriff of Berkeley County ; and to restore 
Bernard Shinkingh as chief judge of same.^ If he found 
the numbers of offenders in the late disorders to be so 
many that it might be inconvenient to punish them all, 
he was then to grant pardon to all except such as had 
been guilty of high treason and murder. He was to pro- 
ceed, however, against some few of the most notorious 
and obstinate offenders, against whom the proof of crimes 
was plainest. He was to encourage people to reside at 
Savannah town,^ or any other place among the Indians ; 
to suffer all people to trade with the Indians. He was 
to make strict inquiry if Mr. Sothell had granted any 
commission to pirates for reward or otherwise ; and was 
informed that '' Jonathan Emery " knew about such trans- 
actions, and had received twenty guineas for procuring a 
commission from Sothell. The Proprietors informed Lud- 
well they had given power to their trustees to sell certain 
lands to such persons as should first have paid the pur- 
chase money in pieces of eight, after the rate of five 
shillings the piece of eight, etc.^ 

But Ludwell, notwithstanding the friendship of the 
Proprietors and his desire to harmonize the distracted 
state of the colony, entered upon his administration with 
no increase of power or promises of reform. " Employ no 
Jacobite," the Proprietors wrote on the 12th of April, 1693; 
" beware of the Goose Creek men ; reconcile yourself to 
our deputies ; don't expect to carry on the government 
with all parties ; convince the people that the grand 

1 To what this instruction alludes we have not been able further to 
ascertain. 

2 Afterwards the site of Fort Moore on the Savannah, near where 
Augusta now is. Not the site of the present city of Savannah. 

3 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 381-384. 



288 Hisi:oRY OF south carolika 

council has power by the constitutions to pass upon all 
bills before they can be submitted to parliament."^ 

Notwithstanding the political turmoil wliich had con- 
tinued without cessation in the colony from its commence- 
ment, its population was steadily, if not rapidly, increas- 
ing. The Huguenot immigration in Craven County and 
other settlers in Colleton Avere peopling those counties to 
a considerable extent ; still Berkeley was by far the most 
thickly settled, and the inhabitants took further offence at 
this new and, as they regarded it, still more unjust dis- 
proportion of representation in the Assembly now called 
by Governor Ludwell under his instructions. 

Colleton County with its new and smaller po^^ulation 
had, under Governor Morton in 1683, been given equal 
representation with Berkeley, and now Craven with 
still fewer inhabitants, and those not even Englishmen, 
was given nearly the same. This created a new ferment. 
" Shall the Frenchmen," said the English colonists, " who 
cannot speak our language make our laws ? " The flame 
of national animosity was kindled against those whom 
they had welcomed with kindness, and whom the officers 
of the Proprietors had been instructed to befriend. Me- 

^ Hist Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 100; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 131. 

"Goose Creek Men," a paper purporting to be an assessment of the 
Parish of St. James, Goose Creek, for January, 1694, is given by Mrs. 
Poyas, the "Octogenarian Lady," in the Olden Time in Carolina, p. 36. 
This is an anachronism, inasmuch as the parish was not established until 
1704. The table of assessment, however, gives a list of the taxpayers on 
Goose Creek, i.e. the " Goose Creek men," of whom the Proprietors were 
so afraid, from which we take the following: Thomas Smith, of Back 
River ; Edward Hyrne ; Thomas Smith, son of Landgrave ; Colonel James 
Moore, Captain George Chicken, Captain Arthur Middleton, Captain Ben- 
jamin Schenckingh, Peter St. Julien, Benjamin Godin, Mr. Mazyck, Hen- 
royda Inglish, and Captain John Neve. This list, however, is certainly 
not complete, for no mention is made of several of the most conspicuous 
of the planters in that settlement, i.e. Robert Gibbes, Ralph Izard, etc. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 239 

morials were addressed to the Governor to dissuade him 
from permitting the French to have seats in the Assembly. 
The severities of the alien law of England were threat- 
ened against them and their children. Their marriages 
and their property were held equally without the respect 
and protection of the laws.^ Hewatt states that not a 
single representative was allowed from Craven in the 
election held under Governor Ludwell's call,^ but this is a 
mistake ; the journals show six members, all Huguenots, 
were returned and took their seats.^ 

The Parliament thus organized, however, was not more 
subservient to the Proprietors than the former had been. 
As soon as the new Assembly met in September, an 
address was sent to Ludwell requesting " an act of free 
and general indemnity and oblivion, and a confirmation of 
all judicial proceedings in the late government" as essbia;;^ 
tial for the prosperity of the colony and the efficiency of 
any law that might be made for the good of the people. 
The necessity for some such measure had been recognized 
by the Proprietors in their instructions to the Governor ; 
but while offering a general pardon, they had excepted not 
only those guilty of high treason and murder, but had also 
directed proceedings against '' some few of the most noto- 
rious and obstinate offenders " as to 'Mvhom the proof was 
plainest," which was understood really to mean that all 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 176. 

2 Ilewatt, Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 113. 

3 The members of the Assembly were as follows : From Berkeley 
County : Major Benjamin Waring, James Moore, Esq., Ralph Izard, Esq., 
Mr. John Ladson, Mr. John Powis, Mr. Jonathan Amory, Mr. Joseph 
Pendarvis. From Colleton County: Robert Gibbes, Esq., William Davis, 
Esq., James Williams, Esq., Mr. Daniel Courlis, Mr. James Gilbertson, 
Mr. Joseph EUicot, Mr. James Stanyame. From Craven County : Alex- 
ander Thette Chastaigner, Esq., John Boyd, Esq., Paul Bonneau, Esq., 

Mons. Rene Ravehel, Mons. John Gendron, Mons. Lebas. Commons 

Journal (MSS.).' 



240 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the leaders agtainst whom evidence could be obtained were 
to be indicted. Ludwell could not under these instruc- 
tions grant the general pardon asked for; nor does his 
rej3ly, observes Rivers, indicate the mildness of disposition 
generally attributed to him.^ He called upon the Assem- 
bly, as the house of representatives now began to be 
called, to look to their journals and to judge what clem- 
ency could be demanded. In a rambling and incoherent 
style he thus addressed the Speaker : — 

" We are unwilling Mr. Speaker to believe that address had due 
and mature consideration in the house, being unable to comprehend 
those double locks and bars viz. : indemnity from and confirmation of 
all the judicial proceedings that past in the last government." 

In the same confused manner he went on to say that he 
could not imagine the meaning "of the two fortifications" 
i.e. indemnity and confirmation — 

" For cei'tainly on the part of any of the activist or cruelists persons 
in the last government, neither lock nor bar will be needful; they 
need do no more than stand in the open street with the gracious con- 
cession in their hands, which being shown, must like Medusa's head 
kill all the opponents that behold it. And how far then an act of in- 
demnity will shroud those whose properest interest it will be to seek 
it by this fatal turn of the tables, or how or where they will obtain it 
we know not; but do guess you well know (your last demand being- 
granted) it must be on the part of those who were the eminentest 
sufferers in the last government to beg it to secure their all ready 
half-cut throats from the other slash ; for our part we cannot possibly 
see what can be ascribed to us (whose own throats by the way must 
be exposed among the rest) but by a mistaken act of mercy to con- 
firm, may heighten all the cruelties of the last government ! Is this 
to be the way to establish peace and safety on either part. Mr. 
Speaker we must own we understand it not." 

The Assembly replied, explaining their address, a mis- 
understanding of which they supposed had caused his 
Honor's "strange style." They repeated their request. 
'^Hist. Sketches of So.Ca. (Rivers), 162. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 241 

Ludwell, on his part, offered an act in accordance with 
the instructions he had received. The Assembly would 
accept this only with alterations, and he could not accede 
to their alterations, but proposed that they should accept 
the indemnity as from him and the deputies for what it 
was worth, and prepare on their part a representation of 
their grievances to the Proprietors. His indemnity was 
unanimously declined ; but a statement of their grievances 
was prepared by the Assembly. This paper, which was 
signed by Jonathan Amory, Speaker, presents very 
clearly the issue between the Proprietors and the colo- 
nists.^ (1) The first grievance stated was in regard to 
the form of conveyancing of land — all the Proprietors 
had not agreed to the same form, and the latest form, i.e. 
that by indenture instead of simple patent, was not satis- 
factory to the people. (2) The Receiver of Rents had 
not been commissioned by all of the Proprietors, so there 
was no one authorized to give a full acquittance and dis- 
charge to the purchasers and tenants. (3) That the 
offices of Sheriff and Judge of Pleas were lodged in one 
and the same person. (4) That although by the charter 
the power of erecting courts was in the Proprietors, yet 
the courts ought to be regulated by laws made by the 
assent of the people. (5) That the public officers were 
allowed to take much greater fees than were allowed by 
act of Parliament in England for the same and like 
services. (6) That the representatives or delegates of 
the people were too few in the Assembly, and that the 
people were not allowed to determine the number of their 
delegates according to the King's most gracious charter. 
(7) They objected to the two Palatine courts — one in 
England and one in Carolina. They complained that one 
made void what the other enacted — thus of late several 
^ Ilist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 483-435. 

R 



242 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

acts of the Assembly had been repealed by the Palatine 
Court in England, which had been ratified by the Palatine 
Court in Carolina. That their Lordships' deputies in Car- 
olina should be fully empowered to give their assent to 
laws and acts by the people. (8) That the Palatine 
Court in Carolina assumed to put in force such English 
laws as they deemed adapted to the province ; but the 
Assembly conceived that either such laws were valid of 
their own force, or could only be made so by an act of 
Assembly. (9) That inferior courts had taken upon 
themselves to adjudge and determine the power of Assem- 
bly or the validity of acts made by them and of matters 
and things relating to the House of Commons. This the 
Assembly conceived to be without the jurisdiction of such 
courts; and only inquirable into and determinable by the 
next succeeding General Assembly. (10) The setting up 
of martial law (except in cases of rebellion, tumult, sedition, 
or invasion) they conceived not warranted by the King's 
charter. (H) They objected to the taking of bonds or 
writings obligator}^ not authorized by law. (12) They 
represented the want of a competent number of commoners 
to represent them in Council. (13) They complained of 
the refusal of an act of indemnity and confirmation till 
tlieir Lordships' pleasure should be known. (14) The 
last clause of this presentment, which was added in Sep- 
tember, 1693, complains of a grievance which was to out- 
last the Proprietary, and to continue under the Royal 
Government until that too was overthrown. This was the 
requirement that no important measure was allowed to be 
put in force until their Lordships' consent could be ob- 
tained from England, which could never be in less than a 
year, and which in fact often delayed measures for two 
years ; so that it sometimes happened that the occasion or 
reason for the enactments liad passed before they were 
acted upon in England. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 243 

This paper is a most interesting one, presenting as it 
does probably the first instance of a petition, or Bill of 
Rights, drawn in America. It is the more so, too, because 
it is one based upon rights claimed under a written con- 
stitution. It is a presentation of the rights claimed by the 
people under the letter of the charter of the province. 

The objections presented by it to the form of convey- 
ances presented by the Proprietors ; to the want of proper 
authority in the Receiver of Rents ; to the improper exac- 
tion of fees by public officers ; to the requirement of bonds 
not authorized by law, — were matters which, though of no 
small importance to the people, were, nevertheless, in the 
nature of temporary inconveniences, abuses rather of the 
law itself than of its authority. The vesting in the same 
persons of the judicial and executive functions of Judge 
and Sheriff, though doubtless most objectionable, was still 
more a* matter of convenience than of constitutional right, 
the remedy for which properly lay in the sound judgment 
of the lawmaking power wherever that was reposed. 
The demand for indemnity for acts done under Sothell's 
administration, though just and reasonable, was a matter 
of personal and temporary character. Bat the other com- 
plaints were fundamental and involved the prerogatives of 
the Proprietors on the one hand, and of the rights and 
liberties of the people on the other. These objections 
extended not only to what the Proprietors prescribed by 
their constitutions and instructions ; but to their right to 
make any such prescription without the assent of the peo- 
ple. It was a far-reaching demand which the Assembly 
made when it claimed that though by the charter the Pro- 
prietors were authorized to erect courts, yet the jurisdic- 
tion of the courts and the laws regulating them could only 
be made with the assent of the people. The power to 
regulate and control the courts is the power to prescribe 



244 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the law. For of what use was the provision of the charter 
insuring to the people that no laws could be made without 
their assent and approbation, if the Proprietors could with- 
out such assent set up courts to pass upon the validity of 
laws and to construe them ? So, too, they denied the right 
of the Proprietors to prescribe the number of the repre- 
sentatives of the people without consultation with them. 
They objected to the two Palatine courts, one in Eng- 
land and one in America. The charter provided for 
a government of the province in America. It did not 
provide for one in England. The Assembly well argued 
that if the laws of England were applicable to the prov- 
ince, they were so proprio vigore and needed not the 
sanction of the Palatine Court ; but if they were not ap- 
plicable by their own inherent force, they could only be 
made so by the act of the Assembly. It is curious to 
observe that among the grievances of which the Assembly 
complain is that inferior courts had taken upon them- 
selves to adjudge and determine the power of the As- 
sembly, and of the validity of acts made by them. So it 
appears that at this early day the courts of Carolina were 
assuming to pass upon the constitutionality of laws. 
They were, it is true, now doing so in the interest of the 
Proprietors as against that of the people ; but whatever 
its present purpose and inspiration, it was an important 
step taken, though unconsciously, in the direction of lib- 
erty, when courts began to inquire into the authority of 
the laws themselves. Because, however its immediate pur- 
pose was to condemn the Assembly which refused to act 
with Colleton, the people at that time failed to recognize 
the advantage which would accrue to them by such a pre- 
cedent.^ The Assembly well protested against the great 

1 The questions as to the origin of the judicial power exercised by the 
courts of the United States — State and Federal — to declare void uncon- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 245 

inconvenience and wrong of postponing the enactment of 
measures until leave could be obtained from England. 
We shall see the same cause operating most disastrously 
under the Royal Government, preventing the establish- 
ment of courts to meet the necessities of the increasing 
population. 

It happened that while the Assembly was engaged in 
preparing this paper in Carolina, the Proprietors were con- 
sidering the same subject in England, but with no purpose 
to grant the desired relief. On the 8th of November, 1692, 
they write to Ludwell withdrawing the power they had 
the year before given him to allow such legislation as might 
be thought necessary for the better government of the 
province, to continue in force for two years with the assent 
of himself and of the deputies. They repeal and make 
void all changes in the laws relating to the courts, magis- 
trates, sheriffs, juries, or elections made under Sothell, and 
direct that all bills relating to such matters and consented 
to by the Governor and deputies should be transmitted to 
them, to be considered and passed upon in England before 

stitutional acts of the legislature, and as to the first instances in which 
it was exercised, have of late given rise to much discussion. The earliest 
instances hitherto adduced having been one by a court in Rhode Island, 
which held the "forcing act" unconstitutional in 1786; and one by a 
court in North Carolina, which set aside an act affecting trials by jury in 
1787, and the famous case of Marbiiry v. Madison, Sup. Ct. U. S., in 1803. 
See "Origin and Scope of the American Doctrine of Constitutional Law," 
Professor 'Thayer, Harvard Tmw Bcview, October, 1898; "An Essay on 
Judicial Power and ITnconstitutional Legislation," Brinton Coxe, Am. 
Jmw Revieio, March and April, 1885 ; McMaster's Hist, of the People 
of the U. S., vol. I, 337-339 ; The Nation, vol. LVII, Nos. 1474, 1475, 
1477, 1484, 1506. But here we find the colonists in South Carolina 
objecting to the exercise of such a power by inferior courts under the 
Proprietary Government a hundred years before. It is to be regretted 
that we have no record of these courts, nor do we even know how they 
were constituted and who presided in them. Indeed, we have no record 
that there was a professional lawyer in the colony at the time. 



246 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

published as law in Carolina.^ They, however, sent out 
under their " great seal " a general pardon to the people 
of Carolina (James Moore and Robert Daniel being ex- 
cepted) for all crimes and offences " committed prior to 
the publication of Ludwell's commission in hopes that in 
time to come it may beget a firm resolution to become 
strict observers of the laws." Unhappily, there was an 
unaccountable delay in announcing this pardon to the 
people.^ 

The issues were thus becoming more and more sharply 
defined between the Proprietors and the colonists ; and 
in the struggle the colonists were steadily gaining. They 
had overthrown and banished one Governor — Colleton. 
They had compelled the Proprietors to recognize Sothell 
and to allow his administration, thus setting aside Smith, 
whom the Proprietors had nominated as Governor, and 
had maintained Sothell until his rapacity and oppression 
had turned them against him. They were now managing 
Ludwell, notwithstanding his instructions from their Lord- 
ships. 

Though during the next thirteen years we shall find 
further attempts to impose the Fundamental Constitutions 
upon the people, the Proprietors now began to recognize 
that the}' could never be enforced, and this they secretly 
admitted to Ludwell. They privately wrote to him that 
as Mathews, who claimed to be empowered by the people, 
assured them that they would not own those laws, they 
had made his instructions as Governor " suitable to our 
charter.'' A still g^reater concession was rendered neces- 
sary when LudwelFs Parliament appointed a committee 
to frame a "system of government." This, indeed, the 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 435, 436. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 163; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 130. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 247 

Proprietors appear to have accepted as a formal rejection 
of the Constitutions and wrote to Ludwell that as the 
people had rejected " the excellent system of Locke," they 
had therefore "thought it best both for them and for us 
to govern by all the power of the charter, and will part 
with no power till the people are disposed to be more 
orderly." This reluctance and reservation, however, were 
expressed to Ludwell alone, while publicly it was an- 
nounced, " that as the people have declared they would 
rather be governed by the powers granted by the charters 
without regard to the Fundamental Constitutions it will be 
for the quiet and the protection of the well disposed to 
grant their requests." ^ 

In the meanwhile the Parliament, i.e. the Governor, Coun- 
cil, and Assembly, in October, 1692, had passed several 
important measures. Three of these related to the courts. 
One empowered magistrates, justices, and others to exe- 
cute the habeas corpus act of Charles II ; another pro- 
vided for the drawing of jurymen in all causes, civil and 
criminal ; and another for the trial of small and mean 
causes. Disregarding the provisions of the Fundamental 
Constitutions as to the qualification of voters for members 
of the Assembly, an act was passed giving the privilege of 
voting to any person otherwise qualified w^ho was worth 
ten pounds, without reference to the time of his residence 
in the colony. 

In regard to the habeas corpus acts, the Proprietors 
assumed that all laws of England applied to the colonies, 
and held that it was not necessary, therefore, to reenact 
that famous statute in their provinces. They disallowed 
the act purporting to do so. The doctrine that the laws 
of England were not of force in the colony they declared 
erroneous. " By those gentlemen's permission that so say," 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 164. 



248 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

wrote the Proprietors, '' it is expressed in our grants from 
the crown that the inhabitants of Carolina shall be of the 
King's allegiance ; which makes them subject to the laws 
of England." ^ But the subject was not disposed of so 
easily. It was one full of difficulty. The question had 
been one of great doubt, and puzzled the lawyers of 
England. 

The theory of the law was that where an uninhabited 
country was discovered and planted by English subjects, 
all laws in force at home became at once applicable ; but 
in the case of an inhabited country conquered, not until 
declared so by the conqueror.^ The trouble was to deter- 
mine as to wliich category the English dominions in 
America belonged. Hilton, Sayle, and Sandford had, it 
is true, each sailed upon voyages of "discovery"; but the 
country had been discovered long before, and, indeed, par- 
tial attempts had been made to settle it. The Spaniards 
claimed Carolina as part of Florida, upon wliich they had 
an established settlement at St. Augustine. Great Britain 
could scarcely claim, therefore, by virtue of discovery. 
Could she do so as of conquest? And if so, conquest 
of whom — Spaniards or Indians? Surely not of the 
Spaniards, for peace nominally reigned at the time of the 
grant of charter by King Charles II. Could she claim 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 161. 

- Blankard v. GaJdu^ Salkeld, 411 ; Bex v. Vaughn^ Burrows'' s He- 
ports, vol. IV, 2500. This most important and delicate question was to 
remain a subject of constant controversy, not only in the American colo- 
nies, in the Islands, and on the Continent, but in Ireland as well. It lay 
at the root of the differences between American colonies and the mother 
country in regard to the navigation laws and the stamp acts, and the 
news of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis found Hood and Grattan 
engaged in the Irish Parliament in the old discussion as to the effect and 
validity of Poyning's law, which rendered Ireland amenable to English 
statutes. England i7i the Eighteenth Century (Lecky), vol. IV, 466-570; 
Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (Lecky), 85. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 249 

the territory as of conquest from the Indians? The Pro- 
prietors were pretending, at least, to purchase the lands 
from them. 

The question had been raised and discussed in the last 
year of the reign of Charles II, bat had not been definitely 
decided. 1 It was, therefore, still an open one when so 
dogmatically decided by the Proprietors ; and from their 
position they were obliged ultimately to recede when, in 
1712, under the administration of Craven, they allowed 
and approved the act adopting the common law and such 
statutes of England as were deemed applicable to the 
condition of the province. Indeed, among others, they 
sanctioned the adoption by the Assembly of South Caro- 
lina of the very act they now so wisely reproved the 
colonists for passing.^ And it was well that they did so, 
for some years after, in a case coming from Jamaica, Lord 
Mansfield held that no act of Parliament made after a 
colony is planted is construed to extend to it without 
express words showing the intention of the legislature to 
be that it should.^ The habeas corpus act of Charles II, 
Shaftesbury's greatest work, by which personal liberty has 
been more effectually guarded in England and America 
than it has ever been in any other country in the world, 
was not enacted until thirteen years after the second 
charter of Carolina. 

The act providing for the drawing of juries which the 
Proprietors disallowed is lost. It has been supposed that 
it was the origin of the admirable jury S3^stem which has 
ever since substantially prevailed in South Carolina, if not 

1 Daws V. Sir Paul Pindar^ Modern Beports^ vol. II, 45. 

2 See post, Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 401. 

•^ Bex V. Vaughn, Burroughs's Beports, vol. IV, 2500 ; Blackstone's 
Com. (Sharswood's ed.), vol. I, 108, note; Jacob's Law Dictionary, 
title "Plantation." 



250 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

from this precise time, from some very near period. ^ The first 
extant act upon the subject is that of 1731 ; ^ but this act 
does not purport to originate the system. It is entitled 
an act " conjirming and establishing the ancient and ap- 
proved method of drawing juries hy ballot.^' The plan was 
certainly, therefore, in existence prior to 1731. It has 
been ascribed to Thomas Smith, the Landgrave.^ By this 
system jurors were not selected by the sheriff, as is usu- 
ally done elsewhere, but the names of all the freemen in 
the province having been taken on small pieces of parch- 
ment of equal size, they were put into a ballot box and 
shaken so as to be thoroughly mixed ; whereupon at every 
court before it rose twenty-four names were drawn from 
the box by a boy under ten years of age ; and from these 
names, put into another box, twelve names were drawn by 
another boy under the same age. The persons whose names 
were so drawn were summoned to appear at the next term 
of the court. If any were challenged, the boy continued 
drawing until the jury was full. By this system, the pack- 
ing of juries by corrupt sheriffs was rendered well-nigh 
impossible. The system has been modified from time to 
time as to the qualification of jurors and as to the manner 
of forming the lists ; sometimes it has been by the court, 
sometimes by the legislature, sometimes by specified 
officers or jury commissioners, but in its main features 
it has been preserved until this day. 

The act of 1792, however, is not to be found, and its 
terms can only be known from the reasons assigned by the 
Proprietors for disallowing it; and from these it can 
scarcely be believed that the act disallowed contained 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 101, note. Hewatt speaks of the 
system as according to an article of the Fundamental Constitutions (vol. I, 
114), but in this he is mistaken. There is no such provision in those laws, 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 274. 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), si^pra. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 251 

such excellent provisions ; indeed, they strongly imply 
that, on the contrary, the sheriff, under its terms, could 
name as jurors what persons he chose. One of the ob- 
jections to the acts was that it required the sheriff of each 
county to divide all the persons of his county into sets of 
twelve, and to draw two papers of twelve names each for 
jurymen for the next court.^ This plan they thought un- 
reasonable and dangerous, as the sheriffs might so '' divide 
the twelve for each paper that there might be in every 
paper some notorious favorers of pyrates^^' who could pre- 
vent their punishment. They disallowed the act.'-^ 

The Proprietors also disapproved the act regulating elec- 
tions ; not because of its violation of the Fundamental Con- 
stitutions, — those they, at least for the present, tacitly 
abandoned, — but because they alleged it was so loosely 
drawn that any one might be admitted to vote for members 
of the Assembly who was worth ten pounds, regardless of 
the length of his residence in the province ; indeed, it was 
so loose, they said, " that all the pyrates that were in the 
ship that had been plundering the Red Sea had been 
qualified to vote for representatives in Carolina."^ 

These allusions by the Proprietors to pirates have been 
made the foundation of renewed charges against the colo- 
nists of Carolina for countenancing these enemies of the 
human race, if not of actual complicity with them. Hewatt 
charges that the gentleness of the government towards 
them and the civility with which they were treated were 
evidences of the licentious spirit which prevailed in the 
province ; that, by their money and freedom of intercourse 
with the people, the pirates so ingratiated themselves into 
public favor that it was no easy matter to bring them to 
trial, and dangerous to punish them as they deserved. 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 436. 

2 Ibid. 3 ma,^ 437. 



252 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The courts of law, he states, became the scene of alterca- 
tion and confusion ; that bold and seditious speeches were 
made from the bar in contempt of the Proprietors and their 
government ; that, as no pardons could be obtained, the 
habeas corpus act was passed, and that hence it hap- 
pened that several of the pirates escaped, took up their 
residence in the colony, and purchased lands ; and that 
finally the Proprietors granted an act of indemnity to all 
except those who had been engaged in plundering the 
Great Mogul, most of whom found means of making their 
escape out of the country.^ Ramsay, who, as usual, follows 
Hewatt without further investigation, amplifies the charge. 
" The courts of law became," he says, " the scene of alter- 
cation and confusion. The gold and silver of pirates en- 
listed in their behalf the eloquence of the first gentlemen 
of the bar, too many of wliom held that every advantage, 
though at the expense of honor, justice, public good, and 
even truth, should be taken in favor of their clients. Hence 
it happened that several of the pirates escaped, purchased 
lands, and took up their residence in the colony." ^ No 
foundation whatsoever can be found in the records of the 
time, further than the brief allusions which we have quoted, 
for these extraordinary charges. They are gratuitous and 
bear on their face their own refutation. It is not known 
that there was a single lawyer in the province at this time, 
and not probable that there could have been one who, 
in these stirring times in this small community, is not 
even mentioned. There were, therefore, no " first gentle- 
men of the bar " to degrade themselves as Ramsay charges. 
But the absurdity of the charge will more fully be appre- 
ciated when we remind the reader that by the law of Eng- 
land at that time, at the time when Hewatt wrote, at the 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 116-117. 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 200. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 258 

time when Ramsay wrote, and for years after counsel were 
not allowed the accused in criminal trials. It was one of 
the anomalies of the English law against which Sir William 
Blackstone protested (1765)/ and which remained un- 
remedied until 1836.2 The charter had given the Proprie- 
tors power to make war upon "pirates and robbers" as 
public enemies ; this did not confer upon them jurisdiction 
of piracies generally. He watt, the historian, has doubtless 
confused the incidents in regard to the pardon and indem- 
nity demanded by the people growing out of Colleton and 
SothelFs administrations with those relating to the pirates. 
The charges against the colonists of Carolina in this mat- 
ter are no more consistent than just. They are accused on 
the one hand of enacting a jury law, by the provisions of 
which pirates might escape conviction ; and on the other 
of bringing over the English habeas co7yus act to rescue 
any that the juries might convict, and this because the 
Governor would not pardon except so far as authorized by 
the Proprietors.^ This accusation involves the Proprietors 
in England as much as it does the colonists in Carolina ; 
for it implies that the judges and magistrates appointed by 
the Proprietors would protect the pirates if the juries did 
not, and discharge them on habeas corpus. The truth is, 
that neither the Proprietors nor their Governor had any 
jurisdiction over piracy on the high seas, and no power to 
discharge or pardon. Piracy is an offence against the law 
of nations, and by the common law of England, when com- 
mitted by a subject, a species of treason, and until the 
Statute 28 Henry VHI was cognizable only in the Courts 
of Admiralty.* The Statute of Henry VHI had not yet 

1 Blackstone's Com., vol. IV, 355. 

2 Encyclopedia Britannica, title " Criminal Law," Edmund Robertson. 

3 He watt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 116. 
* Blackstone's Com., vol. IV, 71. 



254 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

been made of force in the province. We shall see in a 
controversy over the succession to Governor Blake, in 1700, 
that it was maintained that tlie charter did not empower 
any officer of the Proprietors to try persons for acts com- 
mitted out of their dominion, and that hence a Royal com- 
mission was necessary to a judge in admiralty.^ The 
government in England had, therefore, required the pas- 
sage of acts in the colonies providing commissions in admi- 
ralty ; and his Majesty on the 22d of January, 1687, had 
issued his proclamation of pardon to all who would come 
in and accept its terms.^ It was not, therefore, the Pro- 
prietors who granted the indemnity to these people, as 
Hewatt asserts, but King James. The government in 
England had required the passage of acts providing com- 
missions in admiralty, but as yet it had appointed no Vice 
Admiral or prosecuting officer. 

Piracy, it is true, by international law is an offence 
against all nations and punishable by all ; and pirates may 
be pursued in any country where they may be found with- 
out regard to the question on whom or where the piratical 
offence has been committed.^ This we shall see to be the 
law announced b}^ Chief Justice Trott in the famous case 
of Stede Bonnet in 1718, in a charge which is quoted by 
law writers as correctly laying down the rule.* But sup- 
posing the courts of Carolina common law and admiralty 
to have been fully organized, could this feeble colony, 
struggling yet for its own existence, have been expected 
to take upon itself the vindication of the law of nations 
because pirates of the Red Sea happened to be shipwrecked 
on the coast of the province ? The criticism of the con- 

1 See post. 

^ Public Becords of So. Ca. (MSS.). 

3 Kent's Com. (12th ed.), vol. IV, 186. 

* Phillimore on International Law, CCCLVI. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 255 

duct of the Carolinians in this matter, it must be remem- 
bered, relates to the first thirty years of the colony ; there 
is no question of the vigor of their efforts against the 
pirates after that time. The colonists of Carolina have 
been held by historians to an accountability in the matter 
altogether unwarranted by the circumstances in which 
they stood. There is no reason to suppose that the jury 
law and habeas corpus act were at all connected with that 
subject. 

As before observed, it was well known that the whole 
southern coast of America and the West India Islands 
were infested by pirates before any settlement was 
attempted in Carolina. The charters of the province refer 
to pirates and Indians as the enemies in particular with 
whom the colonists would have to contend. The relation 
of the early settlers was the same to one as to the other. 
They looked with dread upon both, and no doubt met the 
one and the other alike with conciliation or resistance as 
their necessities demanded or their circumstances war- 
ranted. It was not until 1687 that the British Govern- 
ment itself made any practical effort for the suppression 
of piracy. During the period of open war between Eng- 
land and Spain letters of marque and reprisal had been 
freely issued, nor was much inquiry made to ascertain 
whether the buccaneers and privateers had taken the 
trouble to obtain the authority of such commissions. 
Charles II, upon his restoration, ordered that every encour- 
agement and protection should be given these adventurers ; 
nor did his Majesty disdain himself to become a partner in 
the buccaneering business. One of the causes of the 
difference which existed between Clarendon and Lord 
Ashley, two of the Proprietors of Carolina, arose out of 
this matter. Clarendon was opposed to the employment 
of privateers. Once they were countenanced, he said. 



256 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

they brought unavoidable scandal and a curse upon 
the justest war. " A sail ! A sail ! " he declared, " is the 
word with them. Friend and Foe is the same. They 
possess all they can master, and run with it to any ob- 
scure place where they can sell it, and never attend the 
ceremony of an adjudication." But Ashley, on the other 
hand, having secured the appointment of Treasurer of Prize 
Money, encouraged his Majesty in their maintenance.^ 
Once the taste for such a life had been acquired and the 
profits of it experienced, it required more than a formal 
declaration of peace to dissolve these roving bands and 
put an end to their plunder. It is, indeed, related that 
King Charles himself continued to exact and receive a 
share of the booty even after he had publicly issued or- 
ders for the suppression of this species of hostility. As 
before mentioned, Henry Morgan, the most famous of 
the buccaneers, w^as knighted by his Majesty and made 
Deputy Governor of Jamaica, doubtless in a measure from 
the good understanding that prevailed between the King 
and himself in their copartnership.^ But little attention 
was .paid, therefore, to his Majesty's orders when, during 
the nominal peace between Spain and England, he found 
it to his interest to avow his purpose by putting an end to 
pirac}^ Upon the accession of James, however, a more 
serious effort was made to this end. In August, 1687, a 
small fleet was dispatched under Sir Robert Holmes with 
a commission '^ for suppressing pirates in the West Indies." ^ 
A copy of this commission was sent to the Proprietors, 
with instructions for their cooperation. Pirates and sea- 
rovers coming unto any of the ports of the province were 

1 Life of Clarendon, Oxford, MDCCLIX, 242. 

2 Bryan Edwards's Hist. West Indies, vol. I, 169. 

3 Chalmers's Pol. Aim. ; Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 319 ; Hist. Sketches 
of So. Ca. (Rivers), 147. 



UNDE^R THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 257 

to be seized and imprisoned, and their ships' goods and 
plunder Avere to be taken and kept in custody until his 
Majesty's Royal pleasure should be known. These in- 
structions the Proprietors at once forwarded to the Gov- 
ernor, and washed their hands of all further responsibility. 
Sir Robert Holmes's commission, it maybe observed in pass- 
ing, granted him for three years all the goods and chattels 
taken by him from pirates or privateers,^ rendering his 
service one scarcely less of plunder than that of the 
pirates themselves. Together also with the instructions 
for the suppression of piracy and copies of Sir Robert 
Holmes's commission, there was sent a notice that his 
Majesty had learned a wreck had been discovered near 
the coast of Hispaniola, from which a considerable quan- 
tity of silver and other treasures had been taken and 
carried into divers parts of his dominions in America, and 
warning the colonists not, indeed, to leave the wreck 
and its treasures to its owners, but that the King 
claimed one full moiety of all treasure and riches taken 
from the bottom of the sea as being by the ancient ordi- 
nances of admiralty due to his Majesty. Sir Robert was 
to have all the treasure he could capture from the pirate, 
and the King was to have his full share of all that could 
be found in wrecks. Under Sir Robert's commission his 
interest was certainly not to protect commerce and the 
colonies from the pirates, but rather to let the pirates get 
all the treasure they could, and then to retake the 
treasure from them and appropriate it to himself. 

Just what assistance the Carolinians gave Holmes, ob- 
serves a writer upon this subject, is not known.^ But a 
more pertinent historical inquiry, perhaps, will be : what 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 120. 

2 S. C. Hughson, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 12th Series, V, VI, 
VII, 26. 

s 



258 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

assistance did Sir Robert give to the Carolinians? The 
Proprietors extended to them the King's orders to seize 
all pirates who should enter their ports. But how was 
this to be done? Pirates are men of war; armed men, 
manning armed vessels. The scourge had been that, by 
means of their arms, they could descend upon and plunder 
not only merchant vessels but small peaceable communi- 
ties. Thus it was that Morgan had swept down upon and 
plundered Porto Bello and Panama, and carried off large 
treasures from them. Again we ask, were the Carolinians, 
surrounded as they were by hostile Indians, in danger of 
Spanish invasion, now also threatened by the French on 
the Mississippi, governed by a feeble board in England, 
who, while unable to afford them protection from any of 
these dangers, three thousand miles away, were harassing 
them in their government — were the Carolinians, in a state 
of civil turmoil, weakness, and danger, to incur the ani- 
mosity of new enemies and to invite the special attention 
of the pirates whom the British fleet under Holmes could 
not or would not suppress ? But suppose that in obedience 
to the instructions of the Lords Proprietors the colonists 
had valiantly determined to seize, prosecute, condemn, and 
execute all pirates who should venture upon their coast, 
where was the legal machinery provided for their doing 
so? A commission in admiralty has been authorized by 
the act passed in Colleton's time. But as yet there was no 
Vice Admiral, no Marshal, no Clerk ; no court organized 
for the purpose. While the Lords Proprietors were amus- 
ing themselves with the making of Landgraves and Ca- 
ciques, and bestowing upon them baronies and manors, for 
the practical business of administering justice, they had no 
Attorney General to prosecute, and but one person to sit 
in condemnation as Judge, and to execute his own decree 
as Sheriff. The same person was to arrest and drag into 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 259 

his court the accused ; theu to mouut the beuch and con- 
demn ; then to take the prisoner to his execution or to see 
at least that the stripes he had awarded were well laid on 
by some other criminal assigned by him to the task. It was 
in this condition of society that the colonists were called 
upon to enforce the laws against offences not committed 
against themselves, nor within the limits of their province. 
It was not until Api'il 12, 1693, that the Proprietors author- 
ized the Governor to appoint some fitting person Attorney 
General for the prosecution of crimes. Nor does it appear 
that such a man was then to be found in the province. 
More than a year after, August 13, 1694, the Proprie- 
tors announced that they had appointed Ferdinando Gorges 
of the Inner Temple Attorney General of the province of 
Carolina ; ^ but the honor was not sufficient to induce that 
gentleman to come out, and it was not until nearly three 
years after that Nicholas Trott, the first Attorney General 
for South Carolina, was appointed. 

Hewatt states that about the time of the passage of the 
habeas corpus act and the jury law by the Parliament of 
Carolina (1692), forty men arrived in a privateer called 
the Loyal Jamaica^ who had been engaged in a course of 
piracy, and brought into the country treasures of Spanish 
gold and silver. Tliese men, he says, were allowed to 
enter into recognizance for their peaceable and good be- 
havior for one year with securities, till the Governor 
should hear whether the Proprietor would grant them a 
general indemnity. At another time, he goes on to say, a 
vessel was shipwrecked on the coast, the crew of which 
openly and boldly confessed they had been on the Red Sea 
plundering the dominion of the Great Mogul.^ Hewatt 
does not give his authority for the statement in regard to 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 136. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 115. 



260 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the passengers of the Loyal Jamaica^ but Dalcho, in his 
Church Histoi-y^ gives the names of twenty-one of them, 
among which are some of the most honored names in 
South Carolina.^ Fortunately, two books of miscellaneous 
records are preserved, one in the Secretary of State's 
office in Columbia, and the other in the Probate office in 
Charleston, which together explain the circumstances and 
refute He watt's allegation that these persons had been 
engaged in piracy. Some of them, it is true, had been 
engaged in a cruise as privateers under a commission from 
King William against the French. The story is probably 
based upon a letter of Edward Randolph, the collector of 
the King's customs in America, which we shall have oc- 
casion to quote a little later, in which the most reck- 
less charges were made against the colonists, not only in 
Carolina, but in every other province in America. In 
this letter of 1696, Randolph, complaining that Governor 
Blake was a favorer of illegal trade, states that, about three 
years before, seventy pirates, having run away with a 
vessel from Jamaica, came to Charles Town, bringing with 
them a vast quantity of gold from the Red Sea. That 
they were entertained and had liberty to stay or go to any 
other place ; that the vessel was seized by the Governor 
for the Proprietors and sold.^ There is no record that the 
Loyal Jamaica was so seized. But in a fragment of the 
journal of the Grand Council found in Grant Book of 
1672-94, in the Secretary of State's office in Columbia, 
to which we have alluded, there is a list of twenty-two 
persons who were required to enter into recognizances 
upon their arrival in that vessel, doubtless under the in- 
structions which were sent out with the copy of Sir Robert 
Holmes's commission, in order that the validity of her com- 
mission might be examined. This record gives the names 
1 Ch. Hist., 15. 2 Cqh ffist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 196. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 



261 



of the persons, the amounts of their recognizances, which, 
except in the case of the captain, George Reiner, one 
Joshua Wilkes, and one James Gilchrist, were merely 
nominal, and gives also their sureties. Among these per- 
sons were Thomas Pinckney, Robert Fenwick, and Daniel 
Horry. The sureties for Thomas Pinckney were Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson and Francis Noble, Gentleman ; for Rob- 
ert Fenwick, Sir Nathaniel Johnson and John Alexander ; 
for Daniel Horry, Isaac Massique (Mazyck ?) and Peter 
Girard. It is probable that all but the captain, Wilkes, 
and Gilchrist were merely passengers.^ In the Miscella- 
neous record book in the Probate office in Charles Town 
there are depositions of Honory Perry, Thomas Pinckney, 



1 In Grant Book, Secretary of State's office, 1672-94, p. 78, we find this 
entry: "The under named persons arrived in this part of tlie Province 
the — day of April Anno Domini 1692 in the shipp called the Loyal Jamaica 
commonly called the Privateer vessell. Each man entered into Recogni- 
zance with securities in the month of May 1692. In the sums to their 
names annexed for one year or until the government heard from England. 



John Watkins . . 
liichard Newton 
Roger Gosse . , 
Adam Richardson 
Edmund Mendlicotte 
William Ballok 
Christopher Linkley 
Thomas Pinckney 
Cap5 Georf^e Reiner 
Joshua Wilkes 
Robert Fenwicke 
James Gilchrist 
Francis Blanchard 
Rog-er Clare . . 
William Crosslye 
Daniel Horry 
Daniel Rawlinson 
Robert Mathews 
WiUiam Walesley 
Richard Abram 
John Palmer 



It It 

0.50 James Moore Esq Cap* Edmund Billinger ... 25 

0.50 Cap5 George Dearsley Edward Rawlins .... 0.25 

0.40 Maj Robert Daniel Charles Burnham 0.20 

0.50 Robert Gibbes Esq. William Beardesly .... 25 

80 Capt Charles Basden Peter Girrard 0.40 

40 John Sullivan Edward Loughton 0.20 

40 Capt Charles Basden William Smith 20 

0.60 



S. Nathaniel Johnson Kn^ Francis Noble. Gen* 

400 a John Alexander William Smith 

100 6 John Ale.vander David Ma}'bank 

60 S. Nathaniel Johnson John Alexander . . . 

100 & John Alexander. Andrew Baugh 

0.40 
30 
30 
50 
0.60 
0.60 
0.60 
0.60 
0.40 



a $ 8000. 



0.30 

200 

50 

80 

50 

Peter La Salle John Thomas 0.20 

Charles Barsden. Henry Hillory 0.15 

Charles Barsden Henry Hillory 0.15 

Isaac Majeique Peter Girard 0.25 

Nicholas Marden Francis Fidling 30 

Anthony Shory. Francis Fidling 80 

William Williams John Lovell SO 

William Popell Nicholas Barlysom 0..S0 

Joseph Palmer John Guppell 20 

h $ 2000. 



262 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Christopher Liukley, and Edmund Medlicott, taken before 
the Council on the 29th of August, 1692, in the case of a 
vessel claimed bj Jonathan Amoiy, which probably ex- 
plains the matter. In these depositions they state that 
they had been on a cruise against the French under a 
commission from King William and Queen Mary, and had 
captured the vessel in question and taken her into Jamaica, 
where she was condemned and sold as a prize. This is 
doubtless the foundation of Randolph's story of pirates 
running away with a vessel from Jamaica, and bringing 
her into Charles Town, and also of Hewatt's story of the 
forty pirates which has been seized upon and amplified 
by other writers. Perry, Pinckney, Linkley, and Medli- 
cott, all young men under twenty-five years of age, had 
been engaged in an adventure under a Royal commission, 
as privateers in times of open and flagrant war between 
England and France. Privateers under a regular com- 
mission from William and Mary were very different from 
the piratical crew encouraged by Charles II. They were 
no more pirates than were the sailors of the allied fleet 
who about the same time burnt the French ships in the 
bays of Cherbourg and La Hogue. 

Poe's charming romance of the Gold Bug^ in which the 
scene of the search for Kidd's buried treasure is laid upon 
Sullivan's Island, has given currency to the idea that 
Kidd at some time visited Charles Town, and it has been 
said that a number of his crew were in Carolina.^ But 
the authority referred to does not, we think, bear out the 
suggestion. Two affidavits are found in the old book of 
miscellaneous records in Probate office, Charleston, just 
referred to, made by two mariners — one of New York — 
then in this province, to the effect that they knew one 
Samuel Bradley, who appears to have been charged 

1 The Carolina Pirates and Colonial Commerce (Hughson), 46. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 263 

with being one of Kidd's men. They depose that they 
had been passengers on board the ship Adventure^ Kidd, 
commander, in a voyage from Madagascar to the Island 
of St. Tliomas, and had seen Bradley on the ship in a weak 
and sickly condition, taking no part with the piratical 
crew, but, on the contrary, continually protesting against 
their course ; for which he was ultimately put ashore on a 
rock on the Island of Antigua. There was probably no 
port on the coast of America — and, for that matter, in 
Europe — then, in which mariners who at some time had 
been engaged in piracies could not be found, pardoned or 
unpardoned. So, too, the place of Kidd's hidden treasure 
is variously located all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 
Sothell had wisely attempted to incorporate the French 
into the political body of the colony, and to facilitate them 
in the settlement of the hitherto unoccupied lands on the 
Santee ; but Ludwell pursued a reactionary course in re- 
gard to these people. The Grand Council, on June 21, 
1692, in issuing an order for the better observance of the 
Lord's Day by prohibiting the haunting of punch houses 
during the time of divine service, further ordered " that the 
French ministers and officers of their church be advised 
that they begin their divine service at 9 o'clock in the 
morning and about 2 in the afternoon of which they are 
to take due notice and pay obedience thereunto." The 
Huguenots complained to the Proprietors of the threats 
made their estates and marriages, whereupon the Proprie- 
tors wrote to the Governor and Council on April 10, 
1693:1 — 

" The French have complained to ns that they are threatened to 
have their estates taken from their children after their death because 
they are aliens. Now many of them have bought the land they 
enjoy of us, and if their estates are forfeited they escheat to us, and 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 176 ; Appendix, 437. 



264 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

God forbid that we should [take] the advantage of the forfeiture, 
nor do we so intend and therefore have sent our declaration under 
our hands and seals to that purpose which we will shall be registered 
in the Secretary's and Registrar's Office, that it may remain upon 
record in Carolina, and be obliging to our heirs successors and assigns. 
They also complaiu that they are required to begin their Divine wor- 
shipp at the same time that the English doe, which is inconvenient to 
them in regard that severall of their congregations living out of 
Towne are forced to come and go by water, & for the convenience 
of such they begin their Divine Worshipp earlier or later as the tide 
serves, in which we would have them not molested. They Complain 
also that they are told the marriages made by their ministers are not 
lawfull because they are not ordained by some bishop and their chil- 
dren that are begotten are bastards. Wee have power by our patent to 
grant liberty of Conscience in Carolina. And it is granted by an act 
of Parliament here, and persons are married in the Dutch & French 
churches by ministers that were never ordained and yett we have not 
heard that the children begotten in such marriages are reputed un- 
lawful or bastards and this seems to us opposite to that liberty of 
conscience their IMajesties have consented to here, and w^e pursuant 
to the power Granted us have Granted in Carolina. Wee desire 
these things may be remedied and that their Complaints of all kinds 
be heard with favor and that they have equal Justice with English- 
men and enjoy the same privileges ; it being for their Majesties service 
to have as many of them as we can in Carolina. Wee would have 
them receive all manner of just encouragement whatsoever," etc. 

Ludvvell was no more successful in his government than 
his predecessors. In attempting to appease both the Pro- 
prietors and the colonists, he satisfied neither. The Pro- 
prietors had abandoned the Fundamental Constitutions in 
name, but by their instructions they strictly retained their 
agrarian regulations and surrendered no power claimed for 
themselves. To gratify the leaders of the people in a 
measure, however, ampler provisions were made for grant- 
ing them lands by the Governor, and the legislative privi- 
leges of the Assembly were defined and extended in cases 
in which the public peace and welfare required enactments, 
provided they did not "diminish or alter any powers granted 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 265 

to the Proprietors." It is evident that while Ludwell had 
refused the demands of the Assembly in the matter of the 
indemnity, he had lost the confidence of the Proprietors. 
'' We are glad to hear that you gain on both parties," they 
wrote, " and approve of your design to open their eyes. 
Avoid the snare Colleton fell into, who was popular at 
first ; but the Goose-Creek men fearing the loss of their 
power offered him an excise for his support, and in return 
made him turn out seal deputies and disoblige others to 
please them ; yet afterward called out against his avarice 
whereby he lost the opinion of the people. We hear they 
are playing the same game with you by offering a gift of 
a thousand pounds. James Moore is at the head of this 
faction. And in return you had an act of indemnity 
which you had not the power to grant. . . . We observe 
you say the Goose-Creek men are resolved to oppose all 
we shall offer ; therefore they ought not to be employed. 

You say Sir Nathaniel has hopes for himself, were 

the government changed to the king. This cannot be 
from William, because he quitted the Leeward Islands on 
account of refusing to take the new oaths. Watch his ac- 
tions." ^ The Governor was thus distrusted by both parties. 
Previously to Sothell's administration, the enacting clause 
of all acts had run, " hy the Palatine and the rest of the 
true and absolute Lords and Proprietors of this Province hy 
and with the advice of the nobility and commons in their 
Parliament assembled."" ^ In Sothell's time the word " no- 
bility " had been omitted, and Ludwell, it appears, had 
advised the same omission. He had also assented to 
several acts which tlie Proprietors immediately annulled, 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 169. This allusion is to Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson, subsequently Governor, who had recently come into 
the province. 

2 See Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, pp. 40-73. 



266 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and thereupon recalled the permission they had given for 
the publication of a certain class of important laws until 
ratified by themselves in England. He had been em- 
powered to grant lands and furnished with a form of in- 
denture for that purpose. The opposition of the people 
finally induced him to propose to the Assembly another 
form of deed on terms that affected the interests of their 
Lordships. The Proprietors, dissatisfied with his conduct, 
recalled his commission.^ 

The Proprietors now went back again to the colonists 
for a Governor, and sent out a commission for Thomas 
Smith. He had, it will be remembered, been nominated 
as Governor to succeed Colleton; but had been superseded 
by Sothell. He had loyally stood by the Proprietors in 
all the controversies since his arrival in the colony, and 
had advised Colleton in proclaiming martial law against 
Berresford and the others, whom their Lordships designated 
as "the Goose-Creek men." He was himself one of the 
richest men in the colony, and had recently married the 
widow of John d'Arsens, Seigneur de Wernhaut, to whom 
the Proprietors had in 1686 granted 12,000 acres of land. 

D'Arsens appears to have died before the grant was per- 
fected, and upon Smith's marriage with D'Arsens's widow, 
he was allowed the benefit of the grant.^ He was now 
made a Landgrave, as became a Governor, with the usual 
accompanying grant of 48,000 acres more. The Proprie- 
tors might well now congratulate themselves that they had 
committed the province to the care of one who was deeply 
interested in its welfare, and cognizant of its interests. 
Much was expected of his character, experience, and in- 
timate knowledge of colonial affairs. But he lost courage 
at the popular ferment about the tenure of lands, payment 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 169, 170. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc, vol. I, 123. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 267 

of quit-rents, the naturalization of the Huguenots, the an- 
nulment by the Proprietors of the acts of Ludwell's Parlia- 
ment relating to juries, and the election of representatives. 
He did not continue in office a year.^ He was commis- 
sioned on the 29th of November, 1693,^ as Governor of 
"Carolina," including both North and South Carolina. 
His instructions, like those of Ludwell, directed him, if 
practicable, to unite the colonies under one General As- 
sembly, to which Albemarle County should send dele- 
gates. If this was, however, impracticable, he was to ap- 
point a deputy for North Carolina.^ 

Governor Smith was enjoined to compel by law the 
collection of rents, and assume the responsibility of direct- 
ing the Receiver General. But there stood, says Rivers, 
the violent James Moore and his coadjutors, determined 
not to pay. "We part with our lands on our own terms," 
reiterated their Lordships. " And we consider your deed 
invalid," rejoined the faction of the people, "because only 
some of you have set your hands and seals thereto." A 
number of the malcontents quitted the province, and it 
was thought unless others went peace could not be re- 
stored. At length Governor Smith, despairing of allaying 
the discontents and contentions, wrote to the Proprietors 
in October, 1694, that he and others intended to abandon 
Carolina and live in some other part of America ; " that it 
was impossible to settle the country except a Proprietor 
himself was sent over with full power to heal grievances." 
Without waiting for their reply, he resigned, and Joseph 
Blake, the son of Benjamin Blake the emigrant, who had 
been made a Landgrave, was chosen by the Council to act 
in his stead until a new Governor should be commissioned.* 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 171. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc.of So. Ca., vol. I, 134. » Ibid. 

* Archdale, Carroll's Coll., 101 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 172. 



CHAPTER XII 

1694-96 

Great changes had in the meanwhile taken place in 
England. James II had abdicated, and William and Mary 
had been proclaimed King and Queen in February, 1689. 
Of the original Proprietors, Clarendon, Albemarle, Lord 
Berkeley, Shaftesbury, Sir George Carteret, Sir William 
Berkeley, and Sir John Colleton were all dead. Earl 
Craven alone survived. 

Clarendon had died at Rouen, in exile, on the 19th of 
December, 1674, and his share, which during his exile had 
been represented by his son. Lord Cornbury, had been sold 
to Seth Sothell (or Southwell) in September, 1681.^ 

Albemarle had died in retirement on the 3d of Decem- 
ber, 1669 ; his son, the second Duke, died in 1G88, without 
leaving issue ; and his share had been in litigation in the 
King's Bench, Chancery, and House of Lords. It had just 
been adjudicated to be the property of the Earl of Bath, 
who was accordingly admitted as a Proprietor on the 
12th of April, 1694.2 

Lord Berkeley had failed to pay his quota towards the 
enterprise,^ and he does not seem to have been concerned 
in its affairs after Shaftesbury undertook their manage- 
ment. In 1675 he was accredited ambassador extraordi- 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 105. 

2 Public Records of So. Ca., Colonial, vol. Ill, 122 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. 
of So. Ca., vol. I, 135. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 100. 

268 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 269 

nary to the Court of Versailles, and died on the 28th of 
August, 1(378. His son, the second Baron of Stratton, suc- 
ceeded to his proprietorship. He died at sea the 21st of 
September, 1682.^ The otlier Proprietors appropriated this 
share, under the forfeiture clause of their joint-stock asso- 
ciates, and conveyed it to Joseph Blake on the 11th of 
April, 1698.2 

Shaftesbury, intriguing with Monmouth and joining in 
the " No Popery Cry," had been seized and committed to 
the Tower in 1681, from which he offered, if released, to 
retire to Carolina. He was allowed to escape and reached 
Amsterdam, where he died the 21st of January, 1683. 
His share was now held by his son, the second Earl, *' a 
poor creature both physically and mentally." ^ It was 
represented, however, by Lord Ashley, the son of the 
latter, who afterwards became another famous Earl of 
Shaftesbury. Locke's connection with the province ceased 
with the fall of his patron. 

Sir George Carteret, who had been created a baronet, 
died on the 13th of January, 1679, and was succeeded by 
his son. Sir George, then a boy of but ten years of age. 
During his minority the share was represented by the 
Earl of Bath. This second Sir George died just about 
this time, i.e. 1695, and was succeeded by his son, who 
afterwards became the Earl of Granville.* 

Sir William Berkeley had been recalled from Virginia 
because of his severity in putting down Bacon's Rebellion, 
and, refused an audience by the King, had died, it was said, 
of a broken heart, on the 13th of July, 1677. He left no 
issue. There was great controversy over his share ; the 
litigation in regard to it was not ultimately settled in 

1 Burke's Peerage. 

2 Danson v. Trott^ 3 Broii^n's Pari. Cases, 452. 

2 Encyclopedia Britannica. * Burke's Peerage. 



270 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the courts until 1729, the year of the surrender to the 
Crown. 

In March, 1681, the other Proprietors write to the Gov- 
ernor in Carolina that Sir William was dead, but it was 
not known to whom his share belonged.^ In May they 
write that Mr. Archdale, having purchased Lady Berke- 
ley's proprietorship, had become one of the Proprietors.^ 
And yet, in 1682, they were attempting to appropriate the 
share to themselves on the ground that it had lapsed 
under the provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions, 
and were only prevented from doing so by the order of the 
King in council on the 10th of December, 1682, made upon 
the petition of Viscount Hardinge, who claimed it as Sir 
William's heir at law. The order declared that the grant 
to Sir William had been made " without being subject to 
such lapse or avoidance.''^ Viscount Hardinge, however, 
gained nothing by his interference ; for, as it turned out, Sir 
William had left a will by which he devised his eighth 
part of the province to his wife Dame Frances. After his 
death she had married Colonel Philip Ludwell, as we have 
seen, and the other Lords Proprietors, failing in their 
scheme of appropriating this share, on the 11th of April, 
1684, four of them, to wit, the then Duke of Albemarle, the 
then Lord Carteret, the Earl of Craven, and Sir Peter 
Colleton, purchased it from Ludwell and his wife Dame 
Frances for £300, that is, probably, ^7500. For purposes 
of their own, however, they did not take the title to them- 
selves, but the deed which they took conveyed the pro- 
prietorship to one Thomas Amy in fee. This Thomas 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 104. 

2 Ibid., 106. 

^ Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 340. Charles Berkeley, Viscount 
Fitzhardinge in Ireland and Earl of Falmouth in England, was the son 
of Charles, eldest brother of Lord John and Sir William Berkeley. The 
Genesis of the United States, Alex. Brown, 827, 828. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 271 

Amy was a grocer in London, probably a relation of Sir 
Peter Colleton, whose mother was a daughter of William 
Amy, Esq. Amy appears to have been an agent of the 
Proprietors in procuring people to go to the province, and 
for this purpose was industrious in meeting and treating 
them at the Carolina Coffee House in London.^ For these 
services 12,000 acres were granted him in 1694.2 Sothell 
dying in the same year without, as it was believed, heirs 
or assigns, the Proprietors made a further grant to Amy of 
the share of the Earl of Clarendon that Sothell had pur- 
chased, and also appointed him one of the Proprietors. 
They at the same time made him a Landgrave and granted 
him a barony of 48,000 acres more.^ 

Sir John Colleton was the first of the Proprietors to die. 
Upon his death, in 1666, he had been succeeded by his 
son Sir Peter, who was just now also dead, and the Colle- 
tons' share was represented by William Thornburgh, mer- 
chant. Sir Peter's executor, as guardian for his minor son, 
the second Sir John.* 

The sole survivor of the original Proprietors was the 
old Earl of Craven, who, in his eightieth year in com- 
mand of the Coldstream Guards, was ready to resist the 
foreign troops of the Prince of Orange, swearing that he 
would rather be cut in pieces than yield possession of his 
post, and only doing so at the command of James.^ The 

1 Danson v. T7'ott, supra. 

2 CoU: Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 137, 141, 142. 

3 Danson v. Ti'ott^ supra; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. (7a. , vol. I, 141, 142. 
In the case of Danson v. Trott, it is said that Sothell was dead without 
heirs or assigns. But the fact was that he had left a will which was 
admitted to probate in North Carolina, where he died. TIawks's Hist, 
of No. Ca., vol. II, 491. The proprietorship does not appear, however, 
ever to have been claimed by any one under his will. 

4 Public Records of So. Ca., Colonial, vol. Ill, 127. 

5 Macaulay's Hist, of England, vol. IV, 42. 



272 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

stout old soldier was now in the eighty-seventh year of his 
age, but he still presided at the Board of Proprietors as 
Palatine. 

The Proprietors, as we have seen, had in Maj^ 1682, 
written that Mr. Archdale had purchased Lady Berke- 
ley's share, and had become a Proprietor. This purchase 
was made in the name of Thomas Archdale, a minor, and 
the interest purchased was represented by his father, John 
Archdale.^ It is impossible to reconcile the conflicting 
claims to this share. In the letter of May, 1681, the Pro- 
prietors recognize its purchase by Archdale as valid, and 
yet we find them in December, 1682, endeavoring to appro- 
priate it to themselves as lapsed, and when foiled in this, 
they purchased it themselves in 1684 from Ludwell and 
Lady Berkeley, now Ludwell's wife, and took this second 
title in the name of Thomas Amy. And what is still more 
curious, they appear to have recognized the double title 
for years ; for both Archdale and Amy sat at the Board of 
Proprietors with apparently title to no other share from 
April 11, 1684, to the assignment by them of Sothell's 
share to Amy in September 29, 1697. 

However this may be, the Proprietors, on July 29, 1682, 
that is, just after his purchase of Lady Berkeley's share, 
commissioned Archdale to receive their rents due in North 
Carolina ; ^ and thereupon he came out and remained in 
Albemarle apparently for some years. He was probably, 
in some degree at least, attracted to that place by his sym- 
pathy with the Quakers, he having become a member of 
the Society of Friends, " convinced and separated from his 
father's house," as he states, by the preaching of George 
Fox. That he contemplated the permanent settlement of 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 467 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca.f 
vol. I, 204. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 105, 106. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 273 

a portion of his family in North Carolina, and that one 
of his daughters did actually settle there as the wife of 
Emmanuel Low, to whom she was married in 1668, is 
proved, says Dr. Hawks, by existing records, as well as by 
the fact that some of their descendants remained there 
until recently, and perhaps are there to this day.^ Arch- 
dale was in North Carolina in an official capacity in 1683, as 
Sothell, who was then the Governor there, was instructed 
by the Proprietors to communicate with him upon the 
subject of their letter.^ 

We have seen the great rewards the Proprietors had 
heaped upon Amy for the use of his name in holding the 
share they had purchased from Lady Berkeley, and for 
the "important services rendered by him" at the Carolina 
Coffee House, but it will appear a little later that Nicholas 
Trott of London,^ who became his son-in-law, was not sat- 
isfied with the provincial title of nobility and a few acres 
of wild woods in payment of good and lawful money of 
the realm expended by Amy in " drumming " for the Pro- 
prietors, but upon the death of Amy demanded further 
compensation before the legal title held by Amy's heirs 
should be divested. This gave rise to the great suit of 
Danson against Trott, which reached, as we have said, the 
House of Lords. 

The business of the province in England was at this 
time principally conducted by Archdale, Amy, and Thorn - 
burgh in the name and over the signature of the aged Earl 
of Craven as Palatine. 

The Proprietors had originally organized themselves 
into a joint-stock company, to the capital of which each 

1 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. 11, 378, 499. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc.of So. Ca., vol. I, 110. 

8 This Nicholas Trott of London was cousin of the famous Nicholas 
Trott, Chief Justice of South Carolina. 

T 



274 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was to contribute X500, and <£200 more annually. This 
capital Avas not, however, fully paid in; neither Lord 
Berkeley nor Sir William fulfilling their quotas. Archdale 
says, however, that about X12,000 was contributed. This 
was expended in fitting out the expedition for the settle- 
ment of the colony in 1669. No more capital appears to 
have been raised, though individual Proprietors are said 
to have laid out several thousand pounds to advance the 
colony. Upon this comparatively insignificant basis, an 
outlay of from 1240,000 to 1300,000 of our present money, 
the Proprietors had undertaken to establish a most ex- 
pensive and aristocratic government in the wild woods 
of Carolina, rivalling the kingdoms of Europe in the 
grandeur and number of its officers, with its three orders, 
themselves representing the King, a nobility of their own 
creation, and an assembly of the Commons. 

The extravagance of this attempt was perhaps not so 
manifestly striking, while the board — a trading corpora- 
tion though it was — consisted only of famous Dukes, 
Earls, Lords, and Baronets who had already been engaged 
in the making and unmaking of Kings, and the overthrow 
and establishment of governments; but exile and death 
soon changed its composition, and the incongruity of the 
whole scheme began to expose itself more fully when 
commoners, some of whom were Quakers, and others mere 
adventurers, became purchasers and assignees of shares ni 
the enterprise, the value of which had fallen below the 
small sums invested ; an eighth share in the vast domain 
included in the grant, with power in the owners of turn- 
ing themselves and others into a nobility, selling in the 
market at the paltry sum of X300 (from 16000 to 17600). 

The board, —the Palatine Court, as it was styled, — with 
its immense province to settle and govern, had not even 
an office or chamber for the transaction of its business, but 



tlNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 275 

met about, sometimes at Whitehall, sometimes at the Cock 
Pit, sometimes at Westminster, but usually at the private 
residence of some one of its members, as convenience sug- 
gested ; nor do they appear to have had any regular time 
for meeting, nor rules prescribing the conduct of their 
business ; indeed, much of the business was transacted 
without any meeting at all, but by means of papers drawn 
by their Secretary, and carried about for the signature of 
such of the Proprietors as could be found. During the 
time that the affairs of the province were under the man- 
agement of Shaftesbury, with Locke acting as his secre- 
tary, the business was regularly and promptly attended to, 
whether the Constitutions they devised were proper or not; 
but after Shaftesbury's fall it was so neglected that, as has 
already appeared, it was usually a year before the Proprie- 
tors' approval to an act could be obtained. 

The action of their Lordships then became careless and 
capricious. They had made it a part of their Constitutions 
that the eldest Proprietor or Landgrave, who should be 
personally in Carolina, should, of course, be the Palatine 
deputy, and yet they were offended when Yeamans, the 
only Landgrave in the province, assumed to act as such. 
So, too, while submitting, however reluctantly, to Sothell's 
assumption of the government, as the only Proprietor 
present, they refused to confirm his administration. West, 
their most faithful and efficient servant, was made to give 
way to Morton, because Morton had carried out a few new 
settlers. Then Morton was capriciously removed because 
they thought a stranger would be more subservient to 
their views than one who had identified himself with 
the colony ; and Kyrle, an L'ishman who knew nothing of 
the people or their wants, was sent to govern them. He 
dying immediately, they not unnaturally appointed one of 
the CoUetons as Governor, but the people overthrowing 



276 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his government, they weakly allowed Sothell's adminis- 
tration, while refusing to support it. Then they sent 
Ludwell ; but retained him only two years, when they re- 
called him, and appointed Smith, who in disgust threw up 
the office in less than a year. 

Without counting the short rule of Kyrle, and the acci- 
dental administration of Quarry, — though Quarry's admin- 
istration, short and accidental as it was, proved to be one of 
the most important, — in twenty-three years the Proprie- 
tors had had by these removals and appointments eleven 
different administrations. Smith, failing to compose the 
contentions in the province, might well appeal to the Pro- 
prietors that one of them should come out to see for him- 
self and in their interest, and to bring with him full power 
to act in the pacification of the people and the settlement 
of the affairs of the province. 

Governor Smith's appeal to the Proprietors to send out 
one of their number was received by them ; but who was 
to come ? 

On the receipt of Governor Smith's letter, a meeting 
was called for the 16th of June, 1694, at Mr. Thornburgh's 
residence on Tower Hill ; but there only came the old Earl 
of Craven, the Earl of Bath, Mr. Archdale, and Mr. Amy. 
It was resolved, therefore, to write to Lord Ashley, who 
was in the country, and pray him to arrange to attend 
upon this extraordinary occasion for the good of Carolina, 
which would require a full Assembly.^ Lord Ashley, the 
second great Earl of Shaftesbury, the third in number, then 
but twenty-four years of age, had shortly before returned 
from foreign travel, and it was hoped that he might have 
been induced to undertake the mission ; but he was just 
about to enter public life in England, his father's affairs 
there required his attention, and he did not respond to 
1 Public Becords of So. Ca., Colonial (MSB.), vol. V, 130. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 277 

the call upon him to go out to Carolina. He did not even 
attend the attempted meeting on the 23d of July. There 
were present at this meeting only the same persons, and 
they adjourned to the 28th, for which day " a court " meet- 
ing was called. But at this court the Earl of Bath was 
not present, and the court consisted only of Earl Craven, 
Mr. John Archdale, Mr. Thomas Amy, and Mr. Thorn- 
burgh. Of these the Earl was the only owner of the 
proprietorship which he represented. We have seen the 
dubious position of both Amy and Archdale ; and Thorn- 
burgh was present only as the guardian of the minor, Sir 
John Colleton. So far from being able to send out one 
of the Proprietors themselves, it was found possible to get 
but one of them to attend a meeting to consider the sub- 
ject, and he was an octogenarian. 

In this dilemma Archdale was willing to make another 
visit to America, and though not in his own right a Pro- 
prietor, it was agreed between Amy, Thornburgh, and 
himself, with the assent of the Earl of Craven, that he 
should come ; so the four, holding " a court," sat down and 
prepared his instructions, Archdale himself taking part 
in their preparation. They were careful to qualify and 
to explain Mr. Archdale's position by recording " that Mr. 
Archdale being in the nature of a proprietoi\^^ and that the 
present exigency of affairs in Carolina required, were the 
only inducements and reasons for his commission and in- 
structions being so much larger than those of other Gov- 
ernors formerly had been.^ 

Archdale appears to have been a vain, amiable, quick- 
tempered man, of some cleverness for business, but without 
the political sagacity or ability of Sothell. Much has been 
said of his piety, and there is no reason to doubt its 
earnestness, though Randolph does accuse him of dishonest 

^ Public Becords of So. Ca.., Colonial, vol. Ill, 134. 



278 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

practices as Governor. But whatever other principles of 
Quakerism he may have adopted, humility was not one of 
them ; and a barony of 48,000 acres, which accompanied 
the title of Landgrave, was too much to forego because of 
scruples as to worldly titles. So he accepted both, as well 
also as the title of Governor, although the latter did re- 
quire that he sliould be addressed as his " Honor." 

Archdale was commissioned Governor both of South 
and North Carolina, on the 31st of August, 1694.1 He 
was empowered to constitute a deputy both in South and 
North Carolina while he was in the province and also 
upon his departure from Carolina to England. He was 
given power and authority, with the advice and consent of 
three of the deputies of the Proprietors, to grant and sell 
lands, reserving a rent of 12 pence for 100 acres per annum, 
and to settle the quit-rents by patents or indentures in 
such manner as he and three deputies might think fit, 
receiving such commodities as the country afforded for the 
rent at a true value. He was also authorized to escheat 
lands and afterwards to sell or let them as might be best. 
He was farther empowered, with the advice and consent 
of the Council and General Assembly, to alter any former 
laws that should be thought fit to be changed, and to 
enact such others as might be reasonable for the better 
government of the province, the new laws to be as near 
as possible to the Fundamental Constitutions. Special 
directions were given in regard to tlie drawing of juries.^ 

It was nearly a year before Governor Archdale reached 
Carolina. He came by the way of Virginia, from which 
place, although clothed with discretionary authority, he 
wrote requesting specific power to appoint new deputies 
to the Proprietors, to abate the quit-rents in arrear, and to 

1 Coll. Jmt. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 138. 

2 Colonial Hecords of No. Ca., vol. I, 389, 390. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 279 

sell land. His request was granted, and where he needed 
guidance he was referred to the instructions sent to Lud- 
well. He was given authority to settle all disputes con- 
cerning lands, to sell at <£20 per thousand acres, the land 
near the settlements, and <£10 for the same quantity in 
the interior ; to take care of the Indians as he thought 
best ; to build new towns ; to fortify Charles Town and 
grant it a charter and permanently to settle the government 
by examining the Fundamental Constitutions, finding what 
would be acceptable to the people, and proposing a new 
set to the Proprietors for their confirmation.^ The price 
of land, it will be observed, was thus greatly reduced ; 
from $ 1 an acre, lands near the settlement were now 
offered at from 50 cents to 40 cents an acre ; and in the 
interior at from 20 cents to 25 cents. 

Having procured these additional instructions. Governor 
Archdale, at length, on the 17th of August, 1695, entered 
upon his government at Charles Town. He spent the first 
months endeavoring to allay " the heats " of the peo- 
ple, and selecting his Council. He brought out with 
him for this purpose blank deputations, in the use of 
which the Proprietors recommended him to observe care, 
" favor to be shown to those who have been the greatest 
benefactors to the country." ^ He prided himself no little 
upon the moderation and judgment with which he exe- 
cuted this power. '' My power," he says, '' was very large, 
yet did I not wholly exclude the High Church party at 
that time out of the essential part of the government, but 
mix'd two Moderate Church-men to one High Churchman 
in the council whereby the ballance of government was 
preserved peaceable and quiet in my Time, and so left and 
continued several years whilst Blake whom I left Gov- 

1 Jlist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 179, 180. 

2 Ibid, 138. 



280 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ernour lived." ^ The Council he thus appointed and 
" mixed " were Joseph Blake, whom he describes as 
"accounted in some measure a dissenter," ^ Stephen Bull, 
James Moore, Paul Grimball, Thomas Gary (his son-in- 
law), John Berresford, and William Hawett.^ All former 
judges of the courts, officers of the militia, and justices 
of the peace were continued in their respective offices.* 
Having arranged these matters to his satisfaction, he 
summoned his first Parliament. " When I arriv'd," he 
says, " I found all matters in great confusion and every 
faction apply'd themselves to me in hopes of relief; I 
appeased them with kind and gentle words and so soon as 
possible call'd an assembly." Upon opening the Assembly, 
he addressed them as " Friends and Representatives of the 
People," and spoke to them of the occasion of his coming, 
told them that upon the application for some Proprietor 
to come over. Lord Ashley had been nominated, but his 
affairs not permitting his Lordship's coming, he had been 
induced to do so. That he was endued with a considerable 
power and trust, and he hoped faithfully and impartially 
to answer their expectations. " And I believe I may 
appeal to your Serious Rational Observations whether I 
have not already so allay'd your Heats as that the disgust- 
ing Titles thereof are so much withered away, and I hope 
this Meeting with you will wholly extinguish them so that 
a solid Settlement of this hopeful Colony will ensue," etc. 
Now that the Assemby had heard the Proprietors' inten- 
tions in sending him hither, he advised them to proceed 
soberly and mildly. 

1 Archdale's Description of Carolina (1708); Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 
112, 113. 

2 Ibid. 

8 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 130 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 142. 

4 Hewatt, vol. I, 130. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 281 

The Assembly replied, thanking Almighty God for his 
Honor's safe arrival, and returned him most sincere and 
hearty thanks for the progress he had already made since 
his arrival towards the settlement of the place ; for his 
candid expressions and the good favor and great kindness 
shown to the people, and assured him of their hearty 
endeavor to the attaining of such a settlement as would 
redound to the honor of the Lords Proprietors and the 
happiness of the people. 

"But Courteous Reader," says Archdale, "after this fair 
Blossomin Season to produce Peace and Tranquility to 
the Country some endeavor'd to sow Seed of Contention 
thereby to nip the same ; insomuch that they sat six 
Weeks under Civil Broils and Heats ; but at length re- 
collecting their Minds into a cooler Frame of Spirit my 
Patience was a great means to overcome them so that in 
the conclusion all Matters ended amicably." ^ 

These remarks, says Rivers, are applicable to both his 
parliaments, but Archdale did not expend much of his 
patience upon the first, which was dissolved on the 29th 
of November, after a session of a few weeks. Upon open- 
ing this Parliament he told the Assembly that the Proprie- 
tors required the jury act to be changed, so that the names 
of the jurymen should each be on a single piece of parch- 
ment and not by twelves. He next informed them that 
the price of selling land was reduced to only half the 
former price, and bade them remember the Proprietors had 
borne the expense " of several thousand pounds " out of 
their own pockets in settling the province. As he had 
spoken to them of his " many dangers and hardships " by 
land and by water, incurred only for their benefit, the 
Assembly immediately gave him the opportunity he seemed 
to desire to benefit them, and earnestly solicited him to 

1 Archdale's Description^ Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 101-103, 



282 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

remit the arrears of rent, which were now a grievous 
burden upon all the people. To their surprise he refused 
to do so except on hard conditions.^ This at once led to 
a rupture with the Assembly, which was dissolved. Imme- 
diately upon its dissolution, however, Jonathan Amory, the 
Speaker, presented a petition in behalf of himself and the 
people at large, praying the summoning of another, to con- 
sist of thirty representatives. Archdale agreed to this and 
on the 30th of November, the day after he had dissolved 
the Assembly, issued a proclamation for the freemen of the 
colony to meet on the 19th of December, at Charles Town, 
'' then and there by a majority of their voices to agree to 
and ascertain the number of their representatives for this 
part of the Province, to consult and advise with us about 
making such laws as shall be necessary for the safety and 
defence of this Province." He professed to do this in com- 
pliance with the request of the " modest and reasonable 
members of the Commons and other well meaning inhabi- 
tants," and not at all to please " the obstinate majority " 
who had just defeated his designs for the peace of the 
province.^ 

Of the thirty representatives on which the people de- 
cided, the twenty for both Berkeley and Craven were 
elected at Charles Town, and the ten for Colleton at Captain 
Bristow's plantation in that county. There were no 
Huguenots among the representatives who assembled in 
the Parliament January, 1696. A petition was again made 
for an abatement of the debts due to the Proprietors. 
Archdale and his Council proposed to remit all arrears 
to Michaelmas, 1695, provided the remaining debts were 
secured, tlie town fortified by means of taxes and measures 
taken for the ready payment of quit-rents for the future. 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 180. 

"^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 181; Appendix, 439. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 283 

The Assembly first demanded an accurate statement of 
accounts between the people and Proprietors. Whilst ^he 
Governor thus bargained Avhen he ought generously to 
have given, lie requested on his part a clause to be inserted 
in the militia act in behalf of " tender conscience," which 
was unanimously refused.^ 

At length '' business proceeded," it was said, " more in 
the spirit of compromise," and some important measures 
were passed. The first was an act to determine the price 
of land, the form of conveyances and the manner of re- 
covery of rents for land, and the prices of the several com- 
modities in " which the same might be paid." ^ By this 
act simpler forms of conveyancing were prescribed, and 
payment of the purchase money or rent reserved might be 
made in current money of the province, or in indigo, cotton, 
silk, rice, beef, or pork (in barrels or half -barrels), or in 
English peas. Six appraisers were to be appointed, three 
of whom were to be nominated b}^ the Governor and 
Council and the other three by the Commons, to fix and 
determine the value at which these commodities should be 
received in payment. Lands rented were to be held at a 
penny an acre, or the value thereof in the above commodi- 
ties. In case of non-payment of the quit-rents the Receiver 
of the Lords Proprietors might distrain, and bring an ac- 
tion in court for recovery. Land should not revert to the 
Proprietors unless payments were delayed for seven years. 
All former grants or purchases from authorized agents, 
notwithstanding anj^ legal defects in the conveyances, were 
confirmed to their possessors. 

To encourage the peopling of the colony, grants were to 
be given without delav. New settlers were exempt from 
rent for five years. To all who wished to purchase, the 

^ Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 182, citing Jonrnals. 
2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. 11, 06. 



284 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

price of land was reduced as allowed to £20 per 1000 acres, 
with a rent of 12 pence per 100 acres, and not forfeitable 
till non-payment for twenty-one years. 

Several acts relating to the domestic affairs of the 
colony were passed. The settlements so far were princi- 
pally upon the rivers and bays with which the low country 
of Carolina is everywhere intersected, and transportation 
was almost entirely by water ; boats and canoes were not 
only, therefore, peculiarly valuable as the means of trans- 
portation, but were also peculiarly liable to theft : an act 
was passed on the subject, providing specially for the 
punishment for the stealing or letting loose of any boat 
or canoe. By this law a white freeman or servant was 
to be punished by a fine, whilst the Indian for the same 
offence was included with the slave and was to receive 
thirty-nine lashes, and for a second offence was to have his 
ears cut off.^ 

A curious act was one providing " for the destroying of 
unmarked cattle." A considerable business of the colony 
at this time was in the rearing of " black cattle." Cattle 
turned loose in the rich swamps, while deteriorating in size, 
multiplied in great numbers. These were watched and 
marked b}^ their owners, and when fit for market were 
butchered and salted and shipped to Barbadoes and other 
West India islands. This act recited that a great number 
of trees had been blown down by the violence of a late 
hurricane, which made the woods difficult to be traversed, 
whereby many persons had been prevented from bringing 
their cattle to their pens and marking them as they were 
accustomed, and that, in consequence, many evil-minded 
persons had taken upon them to kill and destroy great 
numbers of them. The act provided for a system of 
licensing persons to kill unmarked cattle, and punishing 

1 Statntes, vol. II, 105. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 285 

any one for so doing without a certificate from a Justice 
of the Peace.^ 

Arclidale prided himself greatly upon his management of 
Indian affairs and upon the humanity with which he treated 
them ; and his administration has been commended particu- 
larly on this account.^ And yet we have just seen the Indian 
punished by whipping and mutilation for stealing boats, 
for which the white man was only fined, and shall further 
see among the enactments of this mild administration in 
regard to these poor people one requiring " every Indian 
bowman capable of killing deere," before the 25th of 
November in every year, to bring to such person as the 
Governor should appoint to receive the same '' one woolfes 
skinn one tigers skinn or one beare skinn, or two catt 
skinns," and if any one did not do so, the Cacique or Chief 
of his nation was required to bring him to Charles Town 
before the 25th of December, there to be severely whipped 
on his bare back in the sight of the inhabitants of the 
said town, which whipping, the act says, should be in the 
place of that skin which the Indian ought to liave given 
to the receiver.^ In one respect, however, Archdale 
moderated the restriction against the Indians. Sothell 
had forbidden, under severe penalties, firearms and rum 
to be given them. Archdale allowed them a pound of 
powder and thirty bullets for each destructive beast they 
killed beyond the yearly tax. 

During Smith's short administration, an act had been 
passed in 1693 regulating public houses ; but the act has 
been lost and there is no copy of it. So Archdale has the 
honor of the first act of which we have a record regulating 
the sale of liquor in Carolina. The act prohibits the sale, 

1 Statutes, vol. II, 106. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 132. 
8 Statutes, vol. II, 108. 



28G HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

except by license from the Governor, of any beer, cider, 
wine, brandy, rum, punch, or any strong drink whatsoever, 
under the quantity of one gallon at one draught; and 
puts in force all the laws of England, both statute and 
common, concerning the abuses and disorders of taverns.^ 

A beneficent measure of Archdale's administration was 
the inauguration of provision for the poor. Commissionei-s 
were appointed to receive contributions and gifts of charity, 
and, though to a very small extent, to draw from the public 
treasury for the support of the indigent.^ 

Archdale showed more humanity in settling disputes 
between the Indians, and in his conduct to those at a dis- 
tance, than in the laws he provided for governing those 
who were near. He released from captivity four Indians 
and sent them back to their tribe near St. Augustine with 
a friendly letter to the Spanish Governor, who was induced 
thereby to act kindly in return to some Englishmen sliip- 
wrecked on the Florida coast. In another instance his 
taking under his protection a party of Indians at war with 
others was rewarded by the saving of a party of fifty-two 
New Englanders who had been cast away at Cape Fear, 
for whom Archdale sent a vessel and brought them safely 
to Charles Town.^ These were the founders of Wappetaw 
Congregationalist Church, in what was afterwards Christ 
Church parish, and whom we shall find in a few years resist- 
inof the landino- of the French at Sewee.* 

Archdale, yielding to the opinions of the people, left the 
Indian trade and the condition of the Huguenots as he 
found them, but advised, with regard to the latter, the 
plan which was afterwards adopted. He seemed afraid 

1 Statutes, vol. II, 113. 
^ Ibid., 116. 

3 Archdale, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 108, 109. 

4 Ibid., 105, note ; Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 119. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 287 

lest he should do too much, and leaving many things 
undone which required attention, he hastened from the 
colony, appointing, under the power of his commission, his 
friend, Joseph Blake, Deputy Governor.^ 

Upon Archdale's departure, the Commons were pro- 
fuse in their acknowledgments of their appreciation of 
his services. Through Jonathan Amory, their Speaker, 
they made an " humble address and recognition of thanks " 
to the Lords Proprietors for their gracious condescension 
in sending him out with such large and ample powers, for 
the remission of some arrears of rents, and for the undeni- 
able manifestation of their Honor's parental care ; and to 
Archdale himself for the prudent, industrious, and inde- 
fatigable care and management of the powers intrusted 
to him. The acts of grace he had so reasonably conde- 
scended to grant had removed all doubts, jealousies, and 
discouragements of the people, and had laid a most sure 
foundation on which might be erected a most glorious 
superstructure,^ etc. These were but empty words. The 
radical differences between the Proprietors and the colo- 
nists were not removed and were soon to break out afresh. 
Archdale, however, having arranged matters to his own 
satisfaction, received the address with great complacency, 
and promised to present it to the Proprietors on his arrival 
in England.^ 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 185. 

2 Archdale, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 104. 

3 Hewatt, vol. I, 137. 



CHAPTER XIII 

1696-99 

Joseph Blake, whom Arcbdale under his power ap- 
pointed Deputy Governor upon his departure, was the son 
of Benjamin Blake, the immigrant who had come out with 
Axtell and Morton. He had been a Deputy, one of those 
whom Sothell had removed, and whose return to office the 
Proprietors had required ; and as Deputy he had been 
chosen by the Council as Governor, when Smith gave up 
the office in disgust. He had already, therefore, had a 
short administration, and was now about to enter upon 
the longest term of any but Governor West's, whose ad- 
ministration, indeed, his very much resembled in its quiet, 
peaceful, and useful conduct of affairs. On the 25th of 
April, 1697, the Proprietors made him a Landgrave and 
expressed their satisfaction at his appointment by Mr. 
Archdale,^ — an appointment, however, which, as we shall 
see, they afterwards found it convenient to disown. 

The most important act of his administration was the 
naturalization and enfranchisement of the Huguenots. 
The antipathies of the English colonists to the French 
emigrants — because of their nationality refugees from 
their country though they were — had at first been very 
great; but these now began to abate. From the quiet 
and inoffensive behavior of the Huguenots, their industry 
and success in the settlement of a part of the province 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 141. 
288 



UKDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 289 

which had hitherto been avoided by the English, more 
kindly feeling began to be entertained in regard to them. 
Though the Treaty of Ryswick had not yet been actually 
made, the opposition of France to the recognition of 
William was gradually subsiding, and the war between 
England and France was nearing an end. This, no doubt, 
in a ofi-eat measure tended to soften the sentiment of 
hostility to the French in Carolina. At this favorable 
juncture, by the advice of the Governor and other friends, 
the Huguenots petitioned the General Assembly to be 
incorporated with the freemen of the colony, and to be 
allowed the same privileges and liberties with those born 
of English parents. The Assembly listened to the appeal, 
and adopted '^ ayi act for the making aliens free of this part 
of the province and granting liberty of conscience to all 
protestantsr The preamble to this act recited that perse- 
cution for religion had forced some aliens, and trade and 
the fertility of the province had encouraged others, to resort 
to the colony, who had given good testimony of their duty 
and loyalty to his Majesty and the Crown of England, of 
their fidelity to the Lords Proprietors, of their good affec- 
tions to the inhabitants, and by their industry, diligence, 
and trade had very much enriched and advanced the set- 
tlement; and the act provided that all alien inhabitants 
of the province should be entitled to enjoy the same privi- 
leges as those born of English parents, and to hold lands 
and claim the same as heirs or by their own purchase, 
upon the condition that such persons should within three 
months petition the Governor and Lords Proprietors for 
the benefit of its provisions, and should also make oath of 
allegiance to his Majesty King William. The act names 
and enfranchises those who had joined in the petition to 
the Assembly. It went on also furtlier to provide that 
as "several" of tlie present inhabitants had transported 



290 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

themselves into the province in hopes of enjoying the 
liberty of their conscience according to their own persua- 
sion under the Royal charter of King Charles the Second, 
of blessed memory, all Christians who were then in the 
province, or might thereafter come (Papists only excepted), 
should enjoy the full, free, and undisturbed liberty of their 
consciences, and exercise their worship according to the 
professed rules of their religion without let or hindrance.^ 
,:.: Blake had thus easily induced the Assembly to do, of 
tlieir own accord, this justice to the Huguenots which 
Sothell had endeavored to force upon them by his author- 
ity, and Archdale had not ventured to ask. He had 
secured them equal rights and representation with Eng- 
lishmen. 

Governor Archdale had not availed himself, to any 
great extent, of the powers in his commission to alter 
existing laws. Upon his return to England, the Proprie- 
tors themselves, however, took up the subject. In the 
meanwhile, the old Earl of Craven, the third Palatine, had 
died April 9, 1697 ; and John Granville, Earl of Bath, 
-who had just established his title to the original share of 
the Duke of Albemarle, being the eldest of the Lords 
Proprietors, succeeded him as fourth Palatine. The pro- 
prietorship of Earl Craven had descended to his son 
William, Lord Craven.^ The Proj)rietors had, on tlie 22d 
of August, made Thomas Amy a Landgrave ; ^ but they 
wished now to transfer the share which he held in trust, 
i.e. that purchased from Lady Berkeley, to some person 
likely to strengthen their interest at court, yet not 
to lose so valuable a person, they transferred to Amy 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 131. 

2 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 141 ; Collins's Peerage, vol. VII, 
146. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 141, 142. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 291 

the proprietorship of Seth Sothell, which they had ap- 
propriated,^ and, for the present, transferred the trust in 
the Berkeley share to Mr. Thornburgh, who now repre- 
sented at the board not only the Colleton share, but this 
as well/'' The imbecile Earl of Shaftesbury was represented 
by his son Anthony, Lord Ashley ; and the minor Lord 
Carteret by the Earl of Bath. The board was thus re- 
duced to six members : the Earl of Bath, Lord Craven, Lord 
Ashley, and Messrs. Thornburgh, Amy, and Archdale. 
Thus constituted, it made another effort to impose the 
Fundamental Constitutions, but in a revised form. With 
the aid of Major Daniel and Captain Bellinger, who were 
in England,^ the articles were reduced to forty-one by the 
omission of those relating to manors and leet-men, the cum- 
brous system of courts and their dignitaries, etc. The 
new Constitutions made no alterations in matters of re- 
ligion, still provided for the creation of Landgraves and 
Caciques to form the Upper House of Parliament, limiting 
them, however, to half the number of the Commons, made 
the Governor and Council the Palatine Court, and con- 
tinued to proclaim that property was the foundation of 
" all power and dominion in Carolina." These Constitu- 
tions were signed April 11, 1698, by Bath, Palatine, Ashley, 
Craven, Thornburgli, and Am}^ 

Tlie nobility wliich, under the Royal charter, the Pro- 
prietors were empowered to institute, as we have before 
pointed out, was intended to be a provincial nobility. The 
authority given the Proprietors to confer marks of favor 
and titles of honor was explicitly limited to such of the 
inhabitants of the province as should merit such rewards.* 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 143. 

2 Danson v. Trott, supra. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 145. 
* Ajite, p. 61. 



^92 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

But regardless alike of the purpose and limitation of their 
authority, the Proprietors had, up to this time, conferred 
the title of Landgrave upon no inhabitant of the province 
except as an appendage or qualification to that of Gov- 
ernor, in the cases of West, Smith, and Blake, The eleven 
Landgraves had been appointed while they were in Eng- 
land or Barbadoes, from favor or for services rendered in 
those places, such as Locke's for drawing the Constitutions, 
as Axtell's and Morton's in inducing immigration, and as 
Amy's at the Carolina Coffee House. To propitiate the 
opposition to the Constitutions in Carolina, the Proprie- 
tors fell upon the plan of putting these titles of nobility 
within the reach of the colonists by purchase. They sent 
out the new Constitutions by Major Robert Daniel, the 
same Robert Daniel they had excluded from the general 
pardon because of his connection with the revolt against 
Colleton in 1692, and with them they sent also patents for 
six Landgraves and eight Caciques, to be sold to such per- 
sons of worth as Landgrave Morton and he should deem 
worthy. They were to receive from each Landgrave 
c£100 (equal to, probably, 12000), and from each 
Cacique £bO (-11000). ^ Captain Edmund Bellinger 
purchased a patent for Landgrave in England, for 
which he was to pay XlOO in Carolina, and one John 
Bayly purchased another, for which he was to pay XlOO in 
Ireland.*^ Robert Daniel was made a Landgrave without 
purchase. Asa still more substantial favor, the Proprietors 
made over to Governor Joseph Blake the proprietorship 
of Lord Berkeley's which they had appropriated. The 
grant bears date the same day as the Revised Constitu- 
tions.^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 155. 

2 Ibid, 147. 

^ Danson v. Trott, siipra. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 293 

The Assembly in Carolina were, however, not so easily 
to be cajoled. After several weeks had passed, the As- 
sembly requested the Governor and Council to inform 
them if they had power to alter and amend the proposed 
form of government, and were told they had not. They 
then appointed a committee, consisting of Captain Job 
Howes, Ralph Izard, and Dr. Charles Burnham, to look 
into the matter. The committee reported, denying legisla- 
tive power to Landgraves and Caciques as an order; 
recommending that baronies be reduced to a smaller ex- 
tent of land ; demanding that, throughout the colony, 
lands should be secured to the people at the present rate of 
rent and purchase, and that no freeholders of a certain 
quantity of land should be liable to arrest in civil cases. 
These demands the Proprietors refused, and the Constitu- 
tions were again laid aside.^ 

Edward Randolph, the Collector of the King's customs 
in America, had been complaining of the neglect and vio- 
lation of the navigation acts and of the favor shown 
pirates not only in Carolina, but in all the colonies, 
had been urging the King to suppress all the Proprietary 
governments, and had suggested a scheme for consolidat- 
ing all the English provinces. South Carolina and the 
Bahama Islands he recommended should be put under his 
Majesty's immediate authority ; that North Carolina should 
be annexed to Virginia; the three lower counties of Dela- 
ware to be annexed to Maryland ; the province of West 
Jersey to Pennsylvania ; East Jersey to New York ; and 
Rhode Island to Massachusetts.^ This grand scheme for the 
reduction and consolidation of the colonies did not suc- 
ceed ; but his agitation of the subject caused the passage 
of an act of Parliament, in 1695, for preventing frauds and 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 187. 

2 Colonial Eecords of No. Ca., vol. I, 141. 



294 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

regulatinof abuses in the plantation trade. This act, 
which was a reenactment of the navigation laws in more 
stringent form, required the Proprietors of all the Pro- 
prietary governments to submit to the King, for his 
Majesty's approval, the appointments of Governors they 
proposed to make, and the Governors when so appointed 
were required to take oaths to observe the acts in regard 
to the plantation trade ; and all officers appointed by the 
Governor to perform duties under these acts were re- 
quired to give security to the commissioners of customs in 
England.^ 

Randolph saw, even at this early day, that resistance to 
the navigation laws would end in independence, and be- 
lieved that even then that was its purpose. He thought 
the government in America too loose, and desired to have 
their bonds to that at home drawn in and strengthened. 
He advised that fit persons should be appointed Governors 
of Carolina and Pennsylvania, to prevent the illegal trade 
carried on by Scotchmen and others in vessels belonging 
to New England and Pennsylvania ; and that a Court of 
Admiralty with a Judge, a Register, a Marshal, and an 
Attorney General should be appointed in each colony to 
enforce the act of Parliament just passed to prevent frauds 
in the plantations.^ The Lords of Trade approved his 
suggestion as to the establishment of Courts of Admiralty, 
and directed him to nominate fit persons for these offices.^ 
He recommended the appointment of one person as Attor- 
ney General for the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Penn- 
sylvania, North Carolina, and West Jersey; of another, 
for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire ; and 
of another, for New York, East Jersey, and Connecticut. 
He made no recommendation for South Carolina.* 

1 Statutes of the liealm, vol. VII, 103. ^ jf)j(i^ 4^2, 463. 

2 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 461. * Ibid, 463, 464. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 295 

He again addressed the commissioners on the 10th of 
November, 1696 : ^ — 

" The chief end of granting these vast tracts of land (now called 
proprieties) to noblemen and others," he wrote, " was doubtless to 
encourage the first undertakers to plant & improve them for the 
benefitt of the Crowne, & to be always subject & depending on 
England & conformable to the Laws thereof. Great numbers of 
people are now seated in some of these proprieties but have been long- 
endeavoring to break loose & set up for themselves having no sort 
of regard to the Acts of Trade, and discountenancing appeals from 
their Courts to his Majesty in CouncilL The persons appointed by the 
Proprietors to be their Governors are generally men of very indiffer- 
ent qualifications for parts & Estates. Their maintenance is incon- 
siderable which renders their Government precarious also," etc. 

But it was not only in regard to the customs that Ran- 
dolph complained. He was most sweeping and reckless 
in his charges against the colonies for harboring pirates. 
The Bahama Islands, of which Nicholas Trott was then 
Governor, had been and were, he said, a common retreat 
for pirates and illegal traders. Charles Town in Carolina, 
of which Mr. John Archdale, a Quaker, was Governor, as 
one of the Lords Proprietors during his son's minority,^ 
was free for trade to all places. He wrote : — 

" They trade to Carasaw,^ from whence the Manufacture of Holland 
is brought to Charles Towne and carryed by New England men and 
other illegal traders to Pennsylvania Boston etc : and returns are 
made for them in Plantation Commodities which are carryed from 
Carolina to Carasaw and thence to Holland ; about 3 years ago 
70 pirates having run away with a vessel from Jamaica came to 
Charles Towne bringing with them a vast quantity of Gold from the 
Red Sea, they were entertained and had liberty to stay or goe to 
any other place. The vessell was seized by the Governor for the 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 466. 

2 It will be recollected Archdale had taken the title to Sir William 
Berkeley's share, which he had purchased from Lady Berkeley in his 
son's name. 

3 Cura9oa ? 



296 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Proprietors as a Wreck & sold, they have no regard to the Acts 
of Trade. The present Governor (Archdale) is a favourer of the 
illegal trade," etc. 

The inlets of Carituck and Roanoke, he charged, were 
the resorts of pirates and runawa}" servants from Virginia. 
The Governor of Pennsylvania entertained pirates from the 
Red and South seas. Providence, Rhode Island, was a 
free port to illegal traders and pirates from all places, etc. 

The Commissioners of Trade called on the Proprietors 
of the various colonies to answer these charges, and the 
Proprietors of Carolina, Pennsylvania, the Jersej's, and 
Connecticut did so. Protesting their loyalty, but resting 
their rights under their grants, they claimed that their 
charter implied the grant of the Admiral's jurisdiction and 
power of erecting Courts of Admiralty and constituting 
judges and officers for them. The reason the}^ liad not 
hitherto erected such courts was that under the acts of 
Parliament violations of the navigation acts were cogniza- 
ble in the common-law courts, and the establishment of 
Courts of Admiralty would have occasioned salaries and 
other great and expensive charges. They apprehended 
that there was no necessity for such courts, unless for the 
condemnation of prizes, few or none of which had been 
brought into the provinces. They were, nevertheless, 
ready and willing, they said, to erect such courts if re- 
quired.^ 

The Board of Trade, however, insisted upon his Majesty's 
right to his own Courts of Admiralty, notwithstanding the 
charters ; whereupon the Proprietors wisely gave up their 
claim of right and prayed that the Governors of the several 
provinces might have commissions to be Vice Admirals with 
the same powers as the Governors of the provinces under 
Royal authority.^ But this his Majesty was not willing to 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 471. ^ /^j^Z., 473. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 297 

allow. The Board of Trade preferred to look after the 
enforcement of the navigation acts themselves, and to ap- 
point their own Courts of Admiralty. In the persons to 
constitute the court, however, the preferences of the Pro- 
prietors were evidently consulted. Sir Charles Hedges, 
Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, on the 29th of 
Api'il, 1697-98, appointed as admiralty officers for South 
Carolina Joseph Morton, late Governor, Judge ; Thomas 
Cary, Archdale's son-in-law. Register ; Jonathan Amory, 
Speaker of the Commons, Advocate, and R. Pollinger 
Marshal.^ 

Another turn was taken against the Proprietar}^ govern- 
ments. The act of 1695 had required that his Majest3^'s 
approval should be obtained for the appointment of their 
Governors, but now it was further required that the Gov- 
ernor of any Proprietary province should give bond in a 
penalty of not less than X2000 nor more than X5000 
(z.e. from $40,000 to §100,000), according to the trade of 
the province, for the faithful execution of the navigation 
acts. The Proprietors protested that this was unnecessary 
since the recent act requiring the approval of the King for 
the appointment of a Governor. The objection was over- 
ruled and the bond was required.^ 

The Proprietors now found it necessary to pay some 
attention to their courts in Carolina, and to provide some- 
thing better for the administration of justice than a Judge 
and Sheriff combined, without a prosecuting officer. They 
appointed and sent out a Chief Justice and an Attorney 
General. The Attorney General was first commissioned. 
This was the same Nicholas Trott wlio had been Governor 
of the Bahamas, and whom Randolph had denounced as a 
harborer of pirates ; and as if in defiance of this accusation, 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 207. 

2 Colonial Records of No. Ca.., vol, I, 47(5, 477, 657. 



298 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Trott was not only appointed Attorney General, but Ad- 
vocate General of Admiralty and Naval officer. He was 
commissioned as Attorney General February 5, 1697-98, 
and a month after his instructions were made out. His 
duties were prescribed to be : to communicate such in- 
structions to the Governor and Council as were requisite ; 
to peruse the acts of Assembly before confirmation, so 
as to see that they Avere not repugnant to the laws of 
England, and to report the same to the Lords Proprietors. 
He was to prosecute and take care of all matters criminal ; 
to advise and consult with the Collectors of the King's 
customs, and the better to secure the King's customs they 
constituted him also Naval officer. He was instructed to 
inquire into the Indian trade and its abuses. He was to 
be allowed access to all public records in the grantings 
of office, and of all documents whatsoever. His salary 
was fixed at £40 (z.e. about $800) per annum. As 
Naval officer he Avas to make entries of all ships inward or 
outward bound, to obey all instructions and directions 
from the Proprietors or the Commissioners of the Customs. 
The Chief Justice was Edmund Bohun, who was com- 
missioned on the 22d of May, 1698. He was one of the 
few settlers in Carolina who was entitled by birth to be 
called a cavalier. He was of the family mentioned by 
Macaulay as one of those untitled families descended from 
knights who had broken the Saxon ranks at Hastings and 
scaled the walls of Jerusalem. ^ Mr. Bohun was a man of 

1 " There were untitled men well known to be descended from knights 
who had broken the Saxon ranks at Hastings and scaled the walls 
of Jerusalem. There were Bohuns Mowbrays De Veres nay kinsmen 
of the Plouse of l*lantagenet with no higher addition than that of 
Esquire and with no civil privileges beyond those enjoyed by every 
farmer and shopkeeper." — History of England, vol. I (ed. Hurd & 
Houghton), 1878, 42 ; Introductory Memoir to Diary and Autobiography 
of Edmund Bohun. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 299 

learning ; he was the author, compiler, editor, or translator 
of many books,i but he was not a professional lawyer. His 
qualifications for the judicial office were only those ac- 
quired by experience on the magisterial bench, on which 
he had sat for many years by no means regardless of its 
responsibilities, and upon the duties of which he had pub- 
lished a tract, in 1684, entitled The Justice of Peace^ his 
Calling : a 3Ioral Essay. Mr. Bohun, bred a dissenter from 
the religion of the established church, a great admirer of 
parliaments, and taught betimes to fear monarchy and arbi- 
trary government, became one of the sturdiest advocates 
of hereditary monarchy, but was, nevertheless, a most 
zealous and uncompromising Protestant. Upon the over- 
throw of James, he held, with others, that the most sub- 
missive slaves of "passive obedience were not bound to 
remain forever without a government" or actively seek 
the restoration of a prince who had sought to enslave 
the nation and overthrow the Protestant church. Holding 
fast the theory of non-resistance, he thanked God that he, 
by his own " particular providence, had rejected a king 
who had notoriously invaded and destroyed all our civil 
and religious rights and liberties." His abandonment of 
the cause of James cost him the friendship of Archbishop 
Sancroft and the loss of his seat on the magisterial bench. 
But upon the return to power of the Tories in the Parlia- 
ment of 1690, Mr. Bohun was given the post of licenser 
of the press. Here the perversity of his character or fort- 
une again asserted itself. While his known opinions and 
published writings laid him open to strong suspicion of 
Jacobitism on the one hand, his avowed allegiance to Will- 
iam and Mary exposed him, on the other, to a charge of 
gross inconsistency. He held the office but five months. 
His Protestant zeal had occasioned his expulsion from the 

1 For list of works by him see Allibone's Dictionary of Authors. 



300 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

magistracy under James ; restored to it under William 
and Mary, he was again removed by the Whigs because 
of his Toryism. A sincere and earnest Christian, a scholar 
and writer of great ability, he appears to have been a man 
without tact in the vigorous expression of his opinions, 
to which misfortune his irascible temper and the acrimony 
of his style added bitterness. It is not known through 
what medium he obtained the office of Chief Justice of 
South Carolina. His inducement to seek it was probably 
that his eldest son, Edmund, had settled as a merchant in 
the colony.^ 

On the 16th of August, 1698, the Proprietors wrote to 
Governor Blake and Council : ^ — 

" Gentlemen : wee are intent upon making you the happy settle- 
ment in America ; in order to which wee sent you by Major -Daniell 
(who we hope is safely arrived) constitutions of government in which 
wee have been more hearty in securing your liberty and property 
than any particular advantages of our owne. With him went a Mr. 
Marshall a minister recommended by us, who wee hope and doubt 
not will both by example and preaching encourage virtue, and that 
he will not want encouragement from you. And because good laws 
without due exercise are a dead letter, and the reputation of a just 
execution of them is inviting wee have commissioned Edmund 
Bohun Esq a person who has had a very good reputation in the exe- 
cution of the laws of England to be your chief justice ; who besides 
the advantage of his owne estate which will be transmitted to him is 
allowed by us a very good salary to keep him beyond the reach of 
temptation of corruption. Gentlemen your very affectionate friends 
Bath Palatine " etc. 

To obtain for their colony a reputation of the wise ad- 
ministration of its laws, the Proprietors sent out a mere 
Justice of the Peace of England as Chief Justice of the 
province ; and to secure him aguinst the temptation of cor- 
ruption, they allow him, as a very good salary, X60 a year 

1 Introductory Memoir to Autobiography. ^ Ibid. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 301 

(about 11200), but in addition to which there were also 
perquisites of fees and costs. 

John Ely was commissioned as Receiver General on the 
26th of July, and the Governor and Council were in- 
formed of his appointment at the same time as they were 
informed of the appointment of the Chief Justice. Mr. 
Ely was charged as Receiver to settle, or to introduce, 
a trade to North Carolina and the Bahamas, so as to 
produce a profitable revenue to Charles Town. He was 
to inform himself of the fines imposed upon persons for 
misdemeanors, and to collect the same ; to inquire con- 
cerning forfeited and escheated estate ; to take charge of 
their share of wrecks ; to get information in regard to all 
lands granted, and to frame a regular rent-roll. He was 
to pay the salaries of the officers, to receive a certain com- 
mission himself, and to present his accounts once in every 
three months. At the same time tlie Rev. Mr. Samuel 
Marshall was sent out and appointed Registrar of the 
colony. 

The Proprietors were thus attempting — in a niggardly 
way, it is true — to provide a better government ; but they 
were becoming a less and less influential body. Their 
hold upon the province was being weakened and loosened 
both at home and in Carolina. At home, in England, Pro- 
prietary governments were falling into disfavor, and the 
Royal authorities were on the alert to find some good 
cause of forfeiture or suppression. In Carolina the colo- 
nists were becoming more and more restive under the con- 
trol of a weak board, sitting thousands of miles away, and 
giving to their vital interests no regular attention, but only 
the idle moments of lives devoted to other purposes. 
Randolph had roused the Board of Trade at Whitehall to 
a stricter enforcement of the navigation acts, and the pos- 
sibilities of a larger revenue from his Majesty's customs. 



SO^ HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

He was now turning his attention particularly to South 
Carolina, where he proposed to make his residence in the 
winter time to avoid the extreme cold of the northern 
plantations.^ From Charles Town, on the 16th of March, 
1698-99, he addressed a long and interesting letter to the 
Commissioners of Trade.^ From this letter it appears 
that Blake had not been confirmed as Governor by his 
Majesty's order, because the act of 1695, requiring the 
King's approval, had not been noticed by the Proprietors. 
He gives an estimate of the population as not above 1500 
white men, and throughout the province a proportion of 
four negroes to one white man; not more than 1100 fami- 
lies English and French. He tells the story of the de- 
struction of Lord Cardross's colony in 1686, and of the 
projected invasion of St. Augustine, the design of which, 
he had heard, was to establish a trade with the Spaniards. 
He finds great alarm at the rumors of the French settling 
on the Mississippi, " not far from the head of the Ashley 
River"; charges the Lords Proprietors with neglect in 
not furnishing ammunition during the French war; pro- 
poses a scheme for soldiers to be sent over at half pay for 
two or three years, then to maintain themselves (this 
could be done at small charge until they numbered 
1000) ; submits a proposal by one of the Council, a great 
Indian trader who had been 600 miles up the country 
west from Charles Town, to discover the mouth of the 
Mississippi in five or six months at an expense of about 
£400 or £500.3 xhe great improvement made in the prov- 
ince he attributes to the industry and labor of the in- 
habitants. They had applied themselves to make such 
commodities as might increase the revenue of the Crown, 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 209. 

2 Ibid., 210 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 443. 
8 ColonelJames Moore, Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 208. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 303 

as cotton wool, ginger, indigo, etc., but finding them not 
to answer the end, they were set upon making pitch, tar, 
and turpentine, and phmting rice, of which they could 
make great quantities if they had any encouragement 
from England, having about 50,000 ^ slaves to be em- 
ployed in that business ; but they had lost most of their 
vessels, which were but small, some by the French and 
some by the Spaniards, so that they were not able to send 
those commodities to England for a market ; neither were 
there sailors there to man their vessels. 

He recommends that his Majesty should, for a time, 
suspend the duties upon rice, and should encourage the 
planters to fall vigilantly upon making pitch and tar, etc. 
Charles Town he represented as the safest port for vessels 
bound from the West Indies to the northern plantation. 
He had formerly presented their Lordships with proposals 
for supplying England with pitch, tar, masts, and all naval 
stores from New England ; and he had observed, when in 
New York, great abundance of tar brought down the 
Hudson River, and great quantities also from the colony 
of Connecticut; but since his arrival in Carolina, he finds 
he had come to the only place for such commodities upon 
the Continent of America. Some persons had offered to 
deliver in Charles Town Bay, upon their own account, 
1000 barrels of pitch and as much tar, others greater quan- 
tities, provided they were paid for it in Charles Town in 
Lyon dollars,^ passing here at five shillings per piece. 
The season for making these commodities in this province 
being six months longer than in Virginia and the more 

1 Doubtless a clerical error or typographical error for 5000. 

- By act of 1694, fixing the value of Spanish coins, it was enacted 
" that pieces of eight of the coyne of Mexico Pillar . . . Peru Lion 
dollar and other coynes containing full thirteen penny weight troy and 
upwards shall be currante money and pass in this part of this province at 
five shillings the piece of eight," etc. — 2 Statute^ 95. 



304 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

northern plantations, a planter here could make more 
tar in one year witli fifty slaves than the inhabitants of 
northern plantations could do with double the number in 
those places, these slaves living here at very easy rates and 
with few clothes. He encloses a statement of the number 
of French Protestants living in Carolina, which he had 
received from Mr. Girard. He finds these people industri- 
ous and good luisbandmen ; but they were discouraged be- 
cause they were denied the benefit of being the owner and 
master of vessels which other subjects of his Majesty's 
plantation enjoyed. He concludes his account of Carolina 
by saying that, if the place was duly encouraged, it would 
be the most useful to the Crown of all the plantations 
upon the Continent of America. 

The new courts did not work smoothly. A vessel was 
seized and condemned in the Court of Admiralty as a 
prize; Morton, the Judge, refusing to receive the evidence 
of witnesses that it was owned by English subjects and over- 
ruling all defences. Randolph, as usual putting the worst 
construction upon the affair, charged corruption, in which 
he implicated the Judge in Admiralty and the Governor, 
his brother-in-law. The matter was taken up in England 
and gave considerable trouble.^ As might have been ex- 
pected from the over punctiliousness and scrupulosity of 
the new Chief Justice, and his general unfitness for such 
a position amidst the discordant elements of the colony, 
with the meddlesome Randolph at hand to be stirring 
up new difficulties, Mr. Bohun Avas soon in as much 
trouble in Carolina as he had been at home. He was at 
once in as much opposition to Governor Blake as lie had 
been first to King James, and then to King William. Nor 
did he find the colonists of Carolina any more disposed 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 200, 201 ; Colonial Becords of 
No. Ca., vol. I, 546. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 305 

to acquiesce in his assumption of superior morals than 
had been the Whigs or Tories in England. 

We have no record of the immediate occasion of the 
difficulty which arose, but it is apparent that the attempt 
two hundred years ago to establish in Carolina a dual gov- 
ernment, with a dual system of judicature, gave rise at 
once to jealousies and collisions as it has done afterwards 
in our own times under the Federal and State constitu- 
tions. The Lords Proprietors duly forwarded to their 
Governor and Council the orders and instructions of the 
Royal Government relating to the trade and navigation 
laws with instructions to observe them, and to pay all due 
respect to his Majesty's officers ; but tliey were very jeal- 
ous of the Court of Admiralty, and did not hesitate to 
express their chagrin that Landgrave Morton, one of their 
Council, should have accepted a commission from any 
other source than themselves, even though it was that of 
a judicial office from his Majesty himself.^ 

On the 21st of September, 1699, the Proprietors address 
two letters, one to the Governor and Council and the other 
to the Chief Justice. 

To the former they write ; ^ — 

" Gentlemen : wee are not willing to let any ship goe from hence 
without a line from us. And truly you do manage matters on all 
hands that wee have occassion more than enough. We are sorry that 
the sincere love and hearty care wee have for our colony should pro- 
duce no better effect, and wonder you can't see the benefit that will 
always accrue to you and your posterity by a judge who does not de- 
pend on the will and pleasure of a governor. For as we will not act 
arbitrarily ourselves, so we will always endeavour that nobody shall. 
Wee expected that you and our councill should have countenanced our 
judge ; but wee easily discerne that you raise him all the enemys and 
troubles that you can, and in some things in an extraordinary way 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 148, 140. 

2 Note to Introductory 3Iemoir to Autohiograpluj of Edmund Bohun. 



306 HISTORY OF SO0TH CAROLINA 

to say no otherwise of it. Not that wee judge him altogether 
blameless ; but there have been faults on all hands. And wee expect 
and earnestly desire that which is past may be forgot and that 
for the future you will give him due encouragement and assistance as 
we shall require of him to carry himself with all respect to you and 
justice and kindness to the people. Gentlemen your very affectionate 
friends. Bath palatine," etc. 

To the latter they write : — 

" Sir : wee are sorry you have not met with the encouragement and 
assistance wee designed you should have had and which for the future 
will be given to you ; but can't omitt to tell you that you likewise 
have been to blame and have done things imprudently and irregularly. 
Wee rather that you calmely considering of what is past, should find 
them out, than wee be forced to tell you of them. Wee have given 
orders to the govenor and councill in this matter, and w^ee expect that 
you should show them all respect. Wee would recommend to you not 
to shew too great a love for money which is not beautifull in any man 
much worse becoming a judge. Take no more than your dues and if 
they at present be of the least consider time will mend them ; and if 
that don't there may be meanes found to doe it. The wa}^ to compass 
that is not by complaint or passion. When you have convinced every- 
body by your actions of your justice and especially if you act with 
prudence and temper you will gaine their love, and tliey will be studyng 
to make such a man easy. Sir your very affectionate friend," etc. 

On the 19th of October their Lordships address two 
more letters, one to Governor Blake, the other to Attorney 
General Trott. To the Governor they write: — 

"Wee are troubled to see you have not given encouragement to 
our judge as you ought to have done, but have on the other hand, to 
vex him, been exalting the admiralty jurisdiction 'Tis so surprising 
to us that we can't tell what to think of you or the councill or the 
people for whose sake wee were at the charge to send and maintaine a 
judge The people of New York have addressed the governor tliat 
judges and councillors may be sent from England, and promise to 
encourage them themselves . . . There is nothing contributes more 
to the peopling of a country than an impartiall administration of 
justice; nothing encourages trade more; for it is hardly to be im- 
agined that men will labour and run great hazards to get an estate 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 807 

if they have not some assurance of being jDrotected by the lawes . . . 
We must desire you to be very cautious for the future in giving your 
assent to acts which hinder men from coming at their just rights. 
Sir," etc. 

Trott appears in this instance to liave acted as a peace- 
maker. The Proprietors write to him : — 

" Wee are well pleased with your prudent management of the 
affaires of Judge Bohun and returne you our thankes. Wee are sensible 
that he likewise has in some things not been so'^pruaent as he should 
have been. Wee have directed voaj'gcv-'^J'J-ior' and councill to accomo- 
date that affayr and to countenance our judge, in which we expect 
great assistance from your knowledge and prudence. Sir," etc. 

This reference to the action of the colonists of New York 
was needless ; the colonists of Carolina had made the same 
appeal. Twenty-nine years before O'Sullivan had written, 
requesting that an able counsellor should be sent to end 
controversies, and put them in the right way to manage 
the colony ; ^ but the preposterous provision of the Funda- 
mental Constitutions in regard to lawyers and to lawmak- 
ing had deterred any from coming ; and now the Proprietors, 
while sending them a lawyer as Attorney General, were 
sending them a laymen for Chief Justice. In the letter of 
October 19, the cause of the present trouble is hinted at. 
It was that the Governor and Council were vexing Bohun, 
their Chief Justice, by retaining his Majesty's Judge of 
Admiralty. In other words, the Governor and Council 
were paying more deference to the Royal authority than 
to that of the Proprietors. In another letter they charged 
that Mr. Randolph's " blustering has occasioned much of 
this embroilment." 2 But pestilence and death came to 
put a speedy end to the career of the Chief Justice and 
Receiver General. 

The two last years of the century were full of disasters 

1 Ante, p. 137. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 148. 



308 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to the colonists. In the midst of all the political turmoil, 
fire, pestilence, storm, and earthquake visited the planta- 
tion. A letter from the Governor and Council to the 
Lords Proprietors, dated March 12, 1697-98 states : " We 
have had the small pox amongst us nine or ten months 
wli^ch hath been very infectious and mortal. We have 
lost ts^ the distemper 200 or 300 persons. And on the 
24 FebrurvTv a fire broke out in the night in Charles 
Town which hatL. burnt the dwellings stores and out- 
houses of at least fifiy families and hath consumed (it is 
generally believed) in houses and goods the value of 
£30,000 sterling." In a subsequent letter, dated April 23, 
1698, they state that the smallpox still continued, but was 
not so fatal as in the cold weather, and that a great num- 
ber of Indians fell victims to the disease.^ A letter of Mrs. 
Affra Coming to her sister in England of the same time, 
March 6, 1698-99, gives a still more gloom}^ account. She 
writes :^ — 

" I am sorry that I should be the messenger of so sad tidings as 
to desire you not to come to me till you can hear better times than 
here is now, for the whole country is full of trouble & sickness, 'tis 
the Small pox which has been mortal to all sorts of the inhabitants 
& especially the Indians who tis said to have swept away a whole 
neighboring nation, all to 5 or 6 which ran away and left their 
dead unburied, lying upon the ground for the vultures to devouer ; 
beside the want of shipping this fall winter & the spring is the 
cause of another trouble, & has been followed by an earthquake 
& burning of the town or one third of it which they say was of 
equal value with what remains, besides the great loss of cattle which 
I know by what has been found dead of mine and being over stocked, 
what all these things put together makes the place look with a 
terrible aspect & none knows what will be the end of it," etc. 

The next year, 1699, a malignant disease, with little 
doubt yellow fever, was brought in from the West Indies 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 32, note. 

2 MSS. letters in possession of Mr. Isaac Ball. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 309 

and raged in the town. In a letter from the Governor 
and Council dated Charles Town in South Carolina 
January 17, 1699-1700,^ they state that they had nothing 
to communicate but that 

" a most infectious pestilential and mortal distemper (the same which 
hath always been in one or more of his Majestys American planta- 
tions for eight or nine years last past) which from Barbados or 
Providence was brought in among us into Charles Town about the 
28'** or 29'^ of Aug. last past, and the decay of trade and muta- 
tions of your Lordships public officers occasioned thereby. This 
distemper from the time of its beginning aforesaid to the first day 
of November killed in Charles Town at least 160 persons. Among 
whom were Mr Ely Receiver General; Mr Amory Receiver for the 
Public Treasury; Edward Rawlins Marshall; Edmund Bohun Chief 
Justice. Amongst a great many other good and capital Merchants 
and Housekeepers in Charles Town, the Rev Mr Marshall our 
Minister was taken away by the said distemper. Besides those that 
have died in Charles Town 10 or 11 have died in the country, all of 
which got the distemper and were infected in Charles Town went 
home to their families and died; and what is notable not one of their 
families was infected by them." 

Another letter states that " 150 persons had died in 
Charles Town in a few days " ; that " the survivors fled 
into the country " and " that the town was thinned to a 
very few people." ^ 

It is noticeable that Chief Justice Bohun, the Rev. 
Samuel Marshall, the Receiver General Ely, and Edward 
Rawlins, all newly arrived, fell victims to the disease. 
But the old settlers were not exempt. Half of the mem- 
bers of the Assembly died. Nicholas Trott, the Attorney 
General, though a new arrival, escaped. Dr. Ramsay, 
who wrote in 1809, observes this disease was generally 
called the plague by the inhabitants, but that from tradi- 
tion and the circumstances, particularly the contempora- 
neous existence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia, there 
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 36, 36. 2 j^j-^. 



310 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

is reason to believe that the mahidy was the yellow fever, 
and if so, it was the first appearance of that disorder in 
Charles Town and took place in the nineteenth or twen- 
tieth year after it began to be built. He considers that its 
reappearance in 1703 makes it still more probable that it 
was the yellow fever.^ Dr. Dalcho, a physician whom tra- 
dition asserts was surgeon of a privateer before his entry 
into the ministry, and who was probably familiar with the 
disease in the West Indies, regards it also as probable that 
it was the same yellow fever of the time in which he wrote, 
i.e. the same as that of the present day. Indeed, we may 
safely assume that it was. He also calls attention to the 
fact that at that time, before our extensive swamps were 
cleared of their timber and their surface exposed to the 
direct rays of the sun, persons could reside in the low 
country in the summer and autumn without danger, and 
when unusual sickness prevailed in the town the country 
was resorted to as a place of health.^ This continued for 
many years after. In 1738, we shall see, the General 
Assembly called and assembled at Ashley Ferry in Sep- 
tember to legislate in regard to the spread of smallpox, 
then raging in the town. 

During tlie autumn of 1699 a dreadful hurricane, as it 
was then called, happened at Charles Town, which did great 
damage and threatened the total destruction of the town. 
The swelling sea rushed in with amazing impetuosity and 
obliged the inhabitants to retreat for safety to the second 
stories of their houses. Happily, few lives were lost in the 
town, but a vessel, one crowded with the remnants of the 
disastrous Darien colony, happening to be off the bar at 
the time, was totally destroyed. This vessel, the Rising 
Sun, commanded by James Gibson, was one of seven in 

1 Ramsay's Hist of So. Ca., vol. II, 82, 83. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 36, note. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 311 

which the survivors of the Scotch colony had embarked 
upon their attempted return to their native land. But 
one only reached home. Many of those who had em- 
barked in the Rising Sun died of fever and fluxes. To 
complete the chapter of disasters, the vessel encountered 
a gale off the coast of Florida which brought them into 
great distress. They made for the port of Charles Town 
under a jury-mast, and while lying off the bar waiting to 
lighten the vessel that she might get into port, the storm 
arose in which she went to pieces, and nearly every per- 
son on board perished.^ From this vessel one was saved, 
however, almost miraculously, who was to be in a great 
measure the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Caro- 
lina. The Rev. Mr. Archibald Stobo had been waited 
upon by a deputation from the Congregational Church in 
the town and invited to preach, and, agreeing to do 
so, had gone up, taking with him his wife. Lieutenant 
Graham and several others also accompanied him. These 
thus escaped ; and, going the next day in search of their 
unfortunate countrymen, found the corpses of the greater 
part of them washed ashore on James Island, where they 
spent a whole day burying them. Captain Gibson, the 
commander of the vessel, was among those who were lost ; 
and this was regarded by many in Scotland as the retribu- 
tion of Heaven upon his cruel conduct towards the poor 
prisoners whom he transported to Carolina in 1684. '' In 
the very same place," it was said, " it pleased the Sover- 
eign Lord of heaven and earth to call him in so terrible a 
manner to his account." ^ 

One other event of the closing year of the century must 
be mentioned, which, it is to be hoped, had given some 
satisfaction to Mr. Randolph, though he has left no report 

1 Hewatt's flist. of So. Ca., vol. I, 142. 

2 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 141, 142. 



312 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of it to the Lords of Trade. In some alleviation of the 
disasters of the year the planters had made a great rice 
crop. They had raised more than they could find vessels 
to export, but the number which the crop emploj^ed had 
attracted the pirates, who hovered about the bar. Forty- 
five persons from different nations. Englishmen, French- 
men, Portuguese, and Indians, had manned a ship at 
Havana and entered on a cruise of piracy. Several ships 
belonging to Charles Town were taken and the crews 
sent ashore. But quarrelling among themselves about the 
division of the spoil, the Englishmen, proving the weaker 
party, were turned adrift in a long-boat. They landed at 
Sewee Bay and travelled overland to Charles Town, giving 
out that they had been shipwrecked, but had, fortunately, 
escaped to shore in their boat. To their sad disappointment 
and surprise, no less than three masters of ships happened 
to be at Charles Town at the time, who had been taken by 
them and knew them ; upon their testimony the pirates 
were instantly taken up, tried, and condemned, and seven 
out of nine suffered death.^ 

This account is taken from Hewatt. We can find no 
allusion to the incident in correspondence of the time ; nor 
are we informed whether this swift judgment was the first- 
fruits of the newly established Court of Admiralty, or was 
inflicted by the " lynch law " of the people. 

Never, says Hewatt, had the colony been visited with 
such general distress and mortality. Few families escaped 
a share of the public calamities. Almost all were lament- 
ing the loss, either of their habitations by the devouring 
flames, or of friends or relations by infectious and loathsome 
maladies. Discouragement and despair sat on every coun- 
tenance. Many of the survivors could think of nothing 
but abandoning a country in which the judgments of 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 141. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 313 

Heaven seemed to fall so heavily and in which there was 
so little prospect of success, health, or happiness. They 
had heard of Pennsylvania and how pleasant and flourish- 
ing a province it was described to be, and therefore were 
determined to embrace the first opportunity that offered 
of retiring to it with the remainder of their families.^ 

As it happened, however, yellow fever was at the time 
raging in Philadelphia as well as in Charles Town, and 
those who had come from the West Indies regarded that 
dread disease only as one of the evils to which life was 
ordinarily exposed. Smallpox was all over the world. 
It was common at this time in England. From the dangers 
of fire there was no exemption in any country. 

And notwithstanding all the political difiiculties ; not- 
withstanding the impotent yet harassing control of the 
Board of Proprietors in England, the jarring elements 
of different and differing people from various lands thrown 
together in a new country under a feeble government; 
notwithstanding the national animosities, the religious 
antagonisms, the strife and turmoil of a new society, 
in its struggles to adjust itself ; notwithstanding hurricane, 
fire, and pestilence, — the province was improving and the 
colonists were growing in numbers and acquiring some 
wealth. 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ga., vol. I, 143. 



CHAPTER XIV 

1700 

Thirty years had now elapsed since the planting of the 
colony on the Ashley, — thirty years during which the 
only serious efforts of the Proprietors had been devoted to 
the imposition of the absurd Constitutions of Locke, and 
an immediate return from the sales and quit-rents of lands 
and the profits of the Indian trade. Since the minute in- 
structions to West for an experimental farm, they had 
paid no attention whatever to the development of agricult- 
ure in the province, nor to the defence of the colony from 
the French or Spaniards. Whatever had been accomplished 
in the material development of the colony had been by the 
efforts of the colonists themselves without the assistance 
of their Lordships in England. " The great improvement 
made in this Province," wrote Randolph, " is wholly owing 
to the industry and labor of the inhabitants." ^ The Lords 
Proprietors took, however, the credit to themselves ; they 
wrote to Archdale, when on his way out, that Carolina 
was looked upon as a place of refuge and safe retreat from 
arbitrary government and the inconveniences of other 
places; 2 and Archdale, nowise loath to claim the honor 
due his administration, announces that the fame thereof 
quickly spread itself to all the American plantations and 
caused immigration to the province.'"^ 

1 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), Appendix, 445. 

2 Coll Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 138. 

3 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 107. 

314 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 315 

But to Avhatever causes attributable, and they were 
many, the province was indeed improving and the inhabi- 
tants multiplying. In 1680 the population was estimated 
to be 1000 or 1200 souls ; but the great number of families 
who had soon after come in from England, Ireland, Barba- 
does, Jamaica, and the Caribbee Islands, it was estimated, 
had more than doubled that number, so that in 1682 the 
white population was probably 2500.^ In 1699 Randolph 
wrote : " Their militia is not above 1500 soldiers, white 
men, but have through the province generally 4 negroes 
to 1 white man and not over 1100 families English and 
French." '-^ Estimating the fighting men at one-fifth of the 
population^ would make the number at this time 7500. 
It could scarcely, however, have reached that figure, espe- 
cially since the number of families was but 1100. Sup- 
posing that the families averaged five members each, which 
is a large estimate, particularly in a new country, it would 
give but 5500. This may have been near the actual num- 
ber. Hewatt states, but without giving his authority, that 
about this time the number of the inhabitants in the colony 
amounted to between 5000 and 6000.* 

Archdale, as we have before seen, is very severe upon 
the character of the first settlers, describing them as " des- 
perate fortunes" who "first ventured over to break the 
ice . . . generally the ill-livers of the pretended cliurch- 
men";^ but Archdale was much prejudiced against church- 

1 T. A. Carroll's Coll., vol. IT, 82. 

2 Hist. Sketches (Rivers), Appendix, 443. 

^ " It is a popular estimate that one-fifth of the population are fight- 
ing men. If this is intended to designate the natural militia, that is, 
the male population over eighteen and under forty-five years of age, it 
will almost always be an overestimate, except in a population receiving 
largo accessions of adult immigrants or among savage tribes." — Ham- 
mond's South Carolina Resources and Population, etc., 395 (1883). 

4 Hcwatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. T, 147. 

5 Carroll's Coll., vol. I, 100. 



316 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

men sincere or "pretended." Yet the term ''adventurers" 
— not in the technical sense of the contracts under which 
some sailed/ but as applied to those willing to incur risks, 
because having little to lose — described the character of 
many who first came to Carolina. He watt applies the 
same descriptive term to those who immediately followed. 
From this period, i.e. that of Sir John Yeamans's administra- 
tion, he says, every year brought new adventurers to Caro- 
lina. The friends of the Proprietors were invited to it by 
the flattering prospects of obtaining landed estates at an 
eas}^ rate. Others took refuge there from the frowns of 
fortune and the rigor of unmerciful creditors. Youth re- 
duced to misery by giddy passions and excess embarked 
for the new settlement, where they found leisure to reform, 
and where necessity taught them the unknown virtues of 
prudence and temperance. Restless spirits, fond of roving 
abroad, found also the means of gratifying their humors, 
and abundance of scope for enterprise and adventure.^ It 
was, perhaps, among this class that Mr. Amy's "great ser- 
vices " were rendered in meeting and treating people at 
the Carolina Coffee House, and inducing them to go out 
to the colony. 

The immigrants who came into Carolina made a medley 
of different nations and principles. From England, says 
Ramsay, the colony received both Roundheads and Cava- 
liers, the friends of Parliament and adherents of the Royal 
family .2 If all adherents to the Royal family are classed 

iDalcho's Ch. Hist., 14. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 56. See this passage, also, in 
Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 3-4. A similar description is given of 
the first settlers in Virginia: " poore gentlemen, tradesmen, serving men, 
libertines . . . unruly gallants packed thither by their friends to escape ill 
destinies." — Anderson's Hist, of the Church of England in the Colonies, 
vol. I, 203, quoting Smith's Virginia, 88-90. 

8 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 3. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 317 

as Cavaliers, the statement is no doubt correct. But in 
the sense in which the word is generally understood, the 
records scarcely bear out the designation of the Cava- 
liers, whom Macaulay describes as those opulent and well- 
descended gentlemen to whom nothing was wanting of 
nobility but the name, there were none among the earlier 
settlers, and but few came afterwards.^ 

Until the time we are now considering, there had been 
but two persons in the colony having a title — Sir John 
Yeamans, the Landgrave and Governor, and Sir Nathaniel 
Johnson, who was also to be honored with that provincial 
title.^ Sir John had been knighted because of his father's 
sacrifices in the Royal cause, and for his own services in 
Barbadoes. Sir Nathaniel had won his title by his sword 
in the service of the Stuarts. As has been observed, any 
tradition that connects to any extent tlie provincial aris- 
tocracies of the Southern States with the Old World patri- 
cian origin is pure sentimental fiction ; that is, not only 
contrary to common sense and to all evidence that can be 
collected, but is in defiance of colonial history itself. The 
social order of South Carolina has been the outgrowth of 
her peculiar circumstances. 

1 See Hist. Sketch of So. Ca., by Edward McCrady ; Preface to Cyclo- 
pedia of Eminent and Representative Men of the Carolinas, etc. (Madison, 
Wisconsin, Brant & Fuller, 1892). 

2 The wife of Landgrave Axtell and the wife of Landgrave Blake are 
mentioned as " Lady Axtell " and " Lady Blake " in grants and statutes ; 
but this, it is supposed, was merely a local honorary designation of the 
wife of a Landgrave. It cannot be found that they were entitled to 
the appellation by any connection with the peerage in England. Louisa 
Carolina, wife of Rear Admiral Richard Graves, a descendant of Sir John 
Colleton, in a little book published by her in 1821, entitled. Desultory 
Thoughts on Various Subjects, styles herself " Baroness of Fairlawn and 
Landgravine of Colleton." This lady was descended from the three Pro- 
prietors, — Sir John and the two Sir Peter Colletons. She was not, how- 
ever, descended from either of the Landgraves Thomas or James Colleton. 



318 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

But though socially not patricians, and in the main con- 
sisting of those whose circumstances led them to seek 
better fortunes in the New World than the Old afforded, 
and of others of a lower order and more reckless char- 
acter, there is still manifest a strong religious sentiment 
even among the first-comers, and a recognition of the 
Church of England as the established religion of the 
colony. Sayle, dissenter and Puritan though he was, had 
scarcely landed before he applied for a clergyman of the 
church to be sent out, — an appeal Avhich was immediately 
seconded by O'SuUivan, Bull, West, Scrivener, Marshal 
Paul Smith, and Dalton, all the leaders of the colony. 
The very first act passed is one to enforce the observance 
of the Sabbath. It is, nevertheless, doubtless true that the 
dissenters who came with Blake, Morton, and Axtell, and 
the French refugees flying for conscience' sake, were, as a 
class, men of higher, of sterner character than those who 
came from motives of personal advancement only. 

It cannot be deemed wonderful,.observes Hewatt, if many 
of these new settlers were disappointed, especially s^uch 
as emigrated with sanguine expectations. The gayety, 
luxury, and vices of the city were but poor qualifications 
for rural industry, and rendered some utterly unfit for the 
frugal simplicity and laborious task of the first state of 
cultivation. Nor could the Puritan;^ promise themselves 
much greater success than their neighbors ; though more 
rigid and austere in their manners, and more religiously 
disposed, their scrupulosity about trifles and ceremonies, 
and their violent religious dispositions, created trouble all 
around them, and disturbed the general harmony so neces- 
sary to the welfare and prosperity of the young settlement. 
From the various principles which actuated the populace 
of England, and the different sects who composed the flrst 
settlers of Carolina, nothing less could have been expected 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 319 

than that the seeds of division should be imported into the 
new country with its earliest inhabitants.^ 

There is no record of the first French Protestants brought 
out by Petit and Grinard in the ship Richmond in 1680, 
though one of the conditions of their transportation was 
that a list of their names should be furnished. They must 
have been persons of some means, however small, for they 
were required to furnish their own provisions for the 
voyage. It is believed that they were settled on the east 
branch of Cooper River, and formed the nucleus of what 
was known as Orange Quarter, subsequently the parish of 
St. Denis. It has been conjectured that the first of these 
names was derived from the principality of Orange in the 
province of Avignon. The name of St. Denis is supposed 
to commemorate the battle-field of St. Denis in the vicinity 
of Paris, which was the scene of a memorable encounter in 
1567 between the Catholic forces commanded by Mont- 
morency and the Huguenots led by Coligny and the Prince 
of Cond^, in which Montmorency was slain. Some thirty 
families were settled here soon after the Revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes.^ Lawson, in his travels in 1700, found 
seventy families established on the Santee, following trade 
with the Indians and living " as decently and happily as 
any planter in these southward parts of America. The 
French," he says, " being a temperate and industrious 
people, some of them bringing very little effects, yet by 
their endeavours and mutual assistance amongst them- 
selves (which is highly to be commended) have outstript 
our English who brought with 'em larger fortunes though 
(as it seems) less endeavour to manage their talent to the 
best advantage. They live," he says, "like one family, 
and each one rejoices at the prosperity and elevation of his 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 56. 

2 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 111. 



320 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

bretlieren." ^ But it was through pain, travail, and anguish 
that these noble people accomplished what they did. A 
letter of one of the first to arrive, the mother of Gabriel 
Manigault, who in a long and useful life was to accumu- 
late a fortune so large as to enable him to aid the asylum 
of his persecuted parents with a loan of $220,000 for carry- 
ing on its revolutionary struggle for liberty and indepen- 
dence, has been preserved by Ramsay, which, after giving 
a most touching and piteous account of escape from France 
and suffering on their voyage to Carolina, thus relates their 
bitter experience there : — 

" After our arrival in Carolina," she writes, " we suffered every kind 
of evil. In about eighteen months our elder brother unaccustomed 
to hard labor we were obliged to undergo died of a fever. Since 
leaving France we had experienced every kind of affliction — disease 
— pestilence — famine — poverty — hard labor. I have been for* six 
months together without tasting bread, working the ground like a 
slave ; and I have even passed three or four years without always 
having it when I wanted it. God has done great things for us ena- 
bling us to bear up under so many trials. I should never have done 
were I to attempt to detail to you all our adventures. Let it suffice 
that God has had compassion on me and changed my fate to a more 
happy one, for which glory be unto him." 2 

The Huguenots at first cultivated the barren highlands, 
and naturally attempted to raise wheat, barley, and other 
European grains upon them until better taught by the In- 
dians. Tradition relates that men and their wives worked 
together in felling trees, building houses, making fences, 
and grubbing up their grounds until their settlements 
were formed ; and afterwards continued at their labors at 
the whip-saw, and in burning tar for market. General 
Peter Horry stated that his grandfather and grandmother 

1 A New Voyage to Carolina, etc., by John Lawson, Gentleman, Sur- 
veyor General of North Carolina (London, 1700). 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 6, note. The letter is in French. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 321 

began the foundation of their handsome fortune by work- 
ing together at the whip-saw.^ 

It was hoped that these people would have introduced 
the successful cultivation of vines and the production of 
oil and silk. Unfortunately, their expectations were dis- 
appointed. An attempt was made to cultivate the vine 
and the olive, but the climate proved insalubrious, the 
land, except on the margin of the rivers and creeks, was 
unproductive, and did not reward the care of the culti- 
vator. But though not successful in enriching the coun- 
try with these valuable commodities, these refugees became 
a most important and useful part of the population of the 
colony, and were soon after joined by others of their people 
like themselves, refugees from religious persecution. 

The good will of the King and Lords Proprietors towards 
these distressed and exiled Protestants has been considered 
an instance of noble humanity .^ We cannot so regard it, 
at least on the part of the Proprietors. Their great desire 
and purpose at this time was to effect a colonization of 
their lands. They were seeking emigrants for the prov- 
ince on their own account and for their own advantage, 
and the sober and industrious character of these people, 
and, as it was supposed, their peculiar adaptability to 
the climate and circumstances of Carolina, strongly recom- 
mended the scheme of their colonization to their Lordships. 
So advantageous, indeed, did they regard this immigration 
that they granted Rene Petit and Jacob Grinard 4000 
acres of land each for having secured the addition to their 
colony.^ During the years 1685, 1686, and 1687, the Pro- 
prietors made sales themselves directly to French refugees, 
and sent out instruction for lands to be surveyed for 

1 James's Life of Marion^ Introduction, p. 12. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 174. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 102. 

Y 



322 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

them.^ But only in two instances does it appear that 
these grants were made upon other terms than payment 
of the purchase money; and in these they were apparently 
granted as a bonus for inducing others to emigrate. To 
Jean Francois de Genillat, the first of the Swiss nation 
to settle in Carolina, was granted 3000 acres ; and to John 
d'Arsens, Seigneur de Wernhaut, probably a Belgian, the 
trustees of the Proprietors were instructed to measure out 
such quantity of land as he might desire, not exceeding 
12,000 acres.2 Including those to the Swiss and Belgians, 
grants to the foreign Protestants amounted to more than 
50,000 acres. The grants to these people, whether upon 
sale or for other considerations, were upon the same terms 
of possession and descent as the lands given or sold to 
English settlers, notwithstanding the opinion of the latter 
that the new-comers were aliens in all respects in the 
colony as they were in the mother country.^ 

Charles II had furnished the first of these emigrants 
with transportation in the ship Richmond^ and in the 
reign of James II considerable collections were made for 
the refugees who went over to England ; and in that of 
William, X3000 were voted by Parliament ''to be distrib- 

1 These grants were as follows: (1685) James du Gue, 500 acres; 
Isaac Le Jay and Magdalen Fleury alias Le Jay, his wife, 500 acres ; 
Charles Franchomrae and Mary Baulier alias Franchomme, his wife, 500 
acres ; Nicholas Longuemar, 100 acres ; Jean Francois de Genillat (Swiss), 
3000 acres ; Arnold Bonneau, 3000 acres ; James Le Bas, 3000 acres ; (1686) 
Isaac Le Grand, Si6m d' Anarville, 100 acres ; James Le Moyne, 100 acres ; 
James Nicholas alias Pctibois, 200 acres ; Henry Angustus Chastaigner, 
Esq., Seigneur de Cramache, and Alexander Chastaigner, Esq., Seigneur 
de Lisle, 3000 acres; John d'Arsens, Seigneur de Wernhaut, 12,000 
acres ; James Martell, Goulard de Vervant, 12,000 ; (1687) Joachim Gail- 
lard, 600 acres. Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 114, 119. But one of 
these names, i.e. Gaillard, is now surviving in South Carolina. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 114, 117. 

3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 174. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 823 

uted among persons of quality, and all such as, through 
age or infirmity, were unable to support themselves." The 
nobility and wealthier portion of refugees remained nearer 
their old homes in England and on the Continent. Those 
who ventured to America were generally tradesmen, agri- 
culturists, and mechanics. There were, however, among 
them some families of ancient lineage and position. In the 
act " making aliens free," the names and occupations of 
those who had petitioned the General Assembly are given, 
and from them we may gather somewhat of the character 
of these people. These are the occupations which are at- 
tached to their names : weavers, wheelwrights, merchants, 
saddlers, smiths, coopers, shammy-dressers, joiners, gun- 
smiths, sailmakers, braziers, goldsmiths, blockmakers, plant- 
ers, watchmakers, silk-throwsters, apothecaries, and one 
doc tor. 1 Sixty-three persons were named in the act, and 
all other persons desiring to come in under its provisions, 
and obtain the benefits of naturalization, were required, by 
its terms, to apply to the Governor and obtain a certificate 
from him of having taken the oath prescribed. Under this 
provision, the list of naturalized Huguenots was increased 
to 154.'^ The artisans generally found a home and employ- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 132. 

2 " Liste Des Frangois et Suisses . . . who desired naturalization." 
Edited by Theodore Gaillard Thomas, M.D, New York Knickerbocker 
Press, 1868. Ramsay gives a list of a number of respectable and influen- 
tial families which sprung from this stock ; to wit, Bonneau, Bounetheau, 
Bordeaux, Benoist, Boiseau, Bocquet, Bacot, Chevalier, Corcles, Coiiterier, 
Chastaigner, Dii Pre, De Lysle, JDu Bose, Du Bois, Deveaux, Dutarque, De 
la Consiliere, De Leiseline, Douxsaint, Du Pont, Du Bourdieu, D'Harriette, 
Faucheraud, Foissin, Faysoux, Gaillard, Gendron, Gegnilliat, Guerard, 
Godin, Giradeau, Guerin, Gourdine, Horry, Hnger, Jeannertte, Legare, 
Laiirens, La Boche, Lenud, Lansac, Marion, Maz'yck,<^ Manigault,Mouzon^ 

« The Mazycks were not, however, French or Swiss Huguenots. They 
were Walloons of Li6ge. The name originally was written de Mazyck ; 
but upon the removal to the Isle de R6 was changed to Mazicq, agreeably 



324 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ment in Charles Town, while those accustomed to rural pur- 
suits settled in Craven County on the Santee, and some on 
Cooper River and at Goose Creek, and industriously set 
to work clearing and cultivating the ground. The larger 
portion of these settled on the south side of the Santee, 
where a town or tract was laid out and called " James 
Town/' 1 This portion of the country hence obtained the 
name of French Santee. Lawson found about fifty fami- 
lies settled on the banks of the Santee. In 1687 six hun- 
dred French Protestants were sent to America through 
the Royal bounty, and most of these, it is said, located in 
Carolina ; ^ but this can scarcely be so, for the Huguenots, 
including all arrivals, did not reach that number.^ Ran- 
dolph enclosed to the Lords of Trade in his letter of 

Michau, Heiifville, Priolemi, Peromieau, Perdriau, Porcher^ Postell, 
Peyre, Poyas, Bavenel, Royes, Simo7is, Sarazin, St. Julien, Serre, Ti'es- 
vant. In the eighty years shice Dr. Ramsay wrote, some of these families 
have died out or disappeared. The names of those still living are italicized. 
1 The tract of land v^as called "James Town," but no town or village 
was founded. 

'^ The Huguenots (Samuel Smiles), 435. 

3 The following table was furnished Edward Randolph by Peter Girard. 
See Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 447 : — 

People 
The number of the French Protestant Refugees of the French 

Church of Charles Town is 195 

The quantity of the French Protestants of the French Church of 

Goose Creek is 31 

The quantity of the French Protestants of y« Eastern branch of 

Cooper River is 101 

The number and quantity of the French Church of Santee is . in 
Total of the French Protestants to this day in Carolina . 438 

to the French idiom. The original orthography was resumed by the 
emigrant to Carolina, a wealthy merchant, who, upon the Revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, escaped, and came to Carolina with a cargo of £1000 
sterling, — the foundation of a large fortune which he afterwards made 
in the trade to Barbadoes and the other West Indies. Howe's Hist. 
Presb. Ch., 102. 



UNDER THE PROPHIETAKY GOVERNMENT 325 

March 16, 1698-99, an estimate of the number of these 
people as at that time 438. 

The Rev. William Screven, a native of Somerset, Eng- 
land, emigrated to America in 1681, and settled at Kittery, 
in the province of Maine. He was an Anabaptist, and as 
such his religious views were not in harmony with the 
''Standing Order" of that province; whereupon he was 
presented and fined by the County Court " for not fre- 
quenting the publique meeting according to Law on the 
Lords days." Tlie fine was remitted, however, as it ap- 
peared that he usually attended " Mr. Mowdy's meetings 
on the Lords days." He was nevertheless esteemed as a 
citizen and was rapidly advanced to positions of trust ; 
but his zeal in behalf of his opinions determined him to 
devote himself to the ministry and to the formation of a 
Baptist Church in Kittery. Going to Boston, he was 
ordained on the 11th of January, 1682, and upon his 
return organized a Baptist Church; but in doing so he 
met with great opposition from the provincial authorities, 
was summoned before the County Court at York, examined 
as to his views upon infant baptism, and thereupon was 
adjudged guilty of blasphemy, fined, and prohibited from 
having any private exercises at his own house or else- 
where upon the Lord's Day, either in Kittery or any other 
place within the limits of the province. Disregarding this 
injunction, Mr. Screven was "convicted of contempt of his 
Majestys authority by refusing to submit himself to the 
sentence of the former court," required to give bond 
for liis good behavior in the future, and committed to jail 
until he did so. He was released, however, upon his 
promise to depart out of the province within a very 
short time. On the 25th of September, 1682, a covenant 
was entered into and signed, and a " Baptist company " 
organized, for removal to some other place. They do 



326 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

not, however, appear to have been in haste to go. As 
late as October 9, 1683, the " Baptist company " were 
settled at Kittery ; for Screven was summoned again 
before the court for disregard of the previous order; and 
again on the 27 th of May, 1684, he was summoned " to 
appear before the General Assembly in June next." As 
no further mention in reference to Mr. Screven is found 
in the records of the province, it is j)robable that he and 
his company had made all their preparations for removal 
and before the time of the meeting of the General Assem- 
bly arrived, had left their homes on the Piscataqua for a 
new settlement in Carolina. The place selected for the 
settlement was on Cooper River, not far from Charles 
Town; but the exact location is not known, nor the date 
of their arrival. Mr. Screven called the settlement Somer- 
ton, probably from his native place in England.^ Blake, 
Axtell, and Morton came to Carolina about the same time. 
Blake's wife and her mother, " Lady " Axtell, became mem- 
bers of Mr. Screven's congregation. Before 1693 most of 
the members of the church had removed to Charles Town.^ 
In the year 1696 Carolina received a small accession of 
inhabitants by the arrival of a Congregational Church from 
Dorchester in Massachusetts, who, with their minister, the 
Rev. Joseph Lord, settled in a body near the head of the 
Ashley River, about twenty miles from Charles Town. The 
church of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was composed of a 
company of Puritans who, early in 1630, had sailed from 
Plymouth, England, and settled in that province. This 
congregation, which was formed as a missionary enterprise, 

1 To "a confession of Faith of several churches in the county of 
Somerset and in the counties near adjacent," " William Screven of 
Somerton" is one of twenty-five subscribers in 1656. This, it is sup- 
posed, is the same William Screven, the immigrant to Carolina. 

2 Hist, of the Baptist Ch.^ Charleston (Tupper), 1889. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 327 

embarked on the 5th of December, 1695, in two small ves- 
sels, and experienced a severe gale on their passage ; but 
both vessels arrived safely in about fourteen days. The 
colony, treading their way up the Ashley River in quest of 
a convenient place for settlement, fixed upon a spot which 
they named Dorchester. Here, in the midst of an unbroken 
forest, inhabited by beasts of prey and savage men, twenty 
miles from the dwelling of any white man, they took up 
their abode, and remained nearly sixty years, keeping 
together as a distinct community. Finding the situation 
unhealthy and confined to a tract of land too small for 
their purposes, they again moved in 1752 and settled at 
Medway, Liberty County, Georgia. Several families of 
Colleton County, however, came from the stock, and it is 
believed that many of the people in that section of the 
State are derived from this source. The ruins of their fort 
and of their church may yet be seen near Summerville.^ 

The colony was continually receiving new additions 
from Barbadoes and the other West India Islands, bring- 
ing with them their negro slaves. These were all Church 
of England people, and formed a great part of the church 
party in the colony. They settled principally upon the 
Cooper River; some of them were of the Goose Creek 
men of whom the Proprietors warned Ludwell to beware.^ 

1 Howe's Hist, of the Presb. Ch., 120-122. 

2 Sir John Colleton, one of the Proprietors, was from Barbadoes, and 
so were his two brothers, James, the Governor, and Major Charles Col*- 
leton. From that island came Sir John Yeamans, the Landgrave and 
Governor; Captain John Godfrey, Deputy; Christopher Portman, John' 
Maverick, and Thomas Grey, among the first members-elect of the Grand 
Council ; Captain Gyles Hall, one of the first settlers, and an owner of a' 
lot in Old Town ; Robeit Daniel, Landgrave and Governor ; Arthur and 
Edward Middleton, Benjamin and Robert Gibbes, Barnard Schinkingh, 
Charles Buttall, Richard Dearsley, and Alexandei- Skeene. Among others 
from Barbadoes were those of the following names : Cleland, Drayton, 
Elliot, Fenwicke, Foster, Fox, Gibbon, Hare, Hayden, Lake, Ladson, 



328 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The early settlers followed the river courses, and planted 
themselves upon their banks. There were probably two 
causes inducing this : the rivers presented the only means 
of transportation in the absence of roads, and the way 
also of escape from the Indians. The innumerable creeks, 
branches, and inlets from the sea, which intersect the low 
country, presented abundance of room for many years to 
allow river front to almost every plantation. Then fol- 
lowed the filling up of the islands and peninsulas, the set- 
tlements still, however, continuing within easy access to 
water. Tlie banks of the Ashley were first settled under 
Sayle, the western bank most thickly. The Cooper River 
was next followed, and a settlement made upon Goose 
Creek, its first considerable branch, and also on the east 
between that river and the Wando. The destruction 
of Lord Cardross's colony put a stop for many years to 
any settlement at Port Royal ; but the sea islands, those 
now known as James, John's, and Edisto islands, were 
soon peopled. The French refugees had pushed up the 
Cooper, as we have seen, until they had reached the 
Santee. A map made in 1715 ^ shows that the population 
of South Carolina was still confined almost entirely be- 
tween the Santee on the northeast and the Edisto on the 

Moore, Strode, Thompson, Walter, and Woodward. Sayle, the first 
Governor, was from Bermuda. From Jamaica came Amory, Parker, 
Parris, Pinckney, and Whaley ; from Antigua, Lucas, Motte, and Percy ; 
from St. Christopher, Rawlins and Lowndes ; from the Leeward Islands, 
Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the Governor ; and from the Bahamas, Nicholas 
Trott, the Chief Justice. Some of these were probably but temporarily 
on the islands ; some had been long-est;iblished residents. 

This list has been compiled, with the assistance of Langdon Cheves, 
Esq., from various sources, including Emigrants to America^ 1600-1700 
(Hotten). 

1 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1886. Copied from an 
original map of principal part of North America, in the library of 
Thomas Addis Emmet, M.D., of New York. 



UNDER THP: PliOFKlETARY GOVERNMENT 329 

southwest. Generally speaking, the old English colonists 
and the Barbadians, who together composed the Church 
of England people, were settled in Charles Town and upon 
the Cooper and Ashley rivers ; the French Huguenots on 
the Santee ; and English dissenters who had come out 
with Blake and Axtell upon the Edisto. There were, 
however. Independents, Baptists, Quakers, and Huguenots 
in the town. 

Berkeley County was thus for the Church of England, 
Colleton was strongly imbued with dissent, and Craven, 
while Calvinistic in its tenets, was without hostility to 
the church. The colonists had crossed the seas and 
changed their climate, but not their minds ; they had 
brought with them their Old World thoughts, opinions, 
and prejudices. Indeed, was it not on account of these, 
and that they might have liberty to enjoy them, that 
many had deserted their homes and sought refuge in the 
wild woods of America? All were more or less earnest 
in their religious convictions and sentiments, and clung 
to them as matters of vital consequence even while 
neglecting to be ruled in their lives by the principles they 
professed. In this small community of less than 6000 
there were churchmen from England and Barbadoes, 
Independents from England, Old and New, Baptists from 
Maine, and Huguenots from France and Switzerland; all 
zealous of their peculiar religious tenets and many, if 
not most, with the tenacity of bigotry and fanaticism. 
Carolina was a Church of England province under its 
charter, and the Fundamental Constitutions, while offering 
the greatest religious freedom, provided only that God 
was acknowledged and publicly and solemnly worshipped, 
still provided for the establishment and maintenance of 
that church. Every one that came to the colony came 
with full notice of these provisions. Yet the Proprietors 



330 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

could truthfully write to Archdale that Carolina was 
looked upon as a place of refuge and safe retreat from 
arbitrary government and the inconveniences of other 
places.^ But it was inevitable that the Old World's ani- 
mosities must needs soon break out among these various 
people. They had, indeed, been alive from the very 
planting of the colony. 

It is not certainly known, as we have before observed, 
when the first clergyman appeared in the colony, or when the 
first church was built. Dalcho places at the head of his list 
of the clergy the name of the Rev. Morgan Jones, as arriving 
in 1660, but does not mention such a person in the text of 
his work. Dalcho's authority for this is a letter written 
by this person in New York, March 10, 1685-86, in which 
he claims to have been sent from Virginia by Sir William 
Berkeley, to meet the fleet from Barbadoes and Bermuda 
under West. He states that as soon as the fleet came in, 
the small vessels with them sailed "up the River" to a 
place called Oyster Point, where he remained for eight 
months.^ If the writer met the expedition, it is clear that 
he antedated the event by ten years. He states that he 
remained in the colony at Oyster Point for eight months. 
It will be observed that the colony first settled Old Town on 
the Ashley in 1670 and was not removed to Oyster Point 
until 1680. Nor can we reconcile his statement by suppos- 
ing it a mere mistake as to the date, for the date was the 
very point about which his letter was written, the object of 
it being to show that the title of England to America by pos- 
session was prior to that of Spain; moreover, even upon the 
supposition of a mistake as to the date, we remember that, 
on June 25, 1670, at the very time Morgan Jones would thus 
claim to have been in the colony, i.e. eight months after the 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 138. 

2 Gentleman's Magazine^ for March, 1740, vol. X, 103, 104. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 331 

arrival of the fleet, from March to October, 1670, Sajde wrote 
to Lord Ashley about the want of a minister, asking that one 
should be sent, — a request which was renewed by Sayle and 
others in the September following. The letter we are con- 
strained to believe a mere fabrication.^ Mr. Bond, for whom 
Governor Sayle applied in 1670, certainly did not come out. 
We have no account of the building of any church in 
Old Town on the Ashley, though Culpepper supposed that 
a tract marked out as reserved by the Proprietors was 
intended for a minister. It is possible that the Rev. Atkin 
Williamson may have officiated there. The removal of the 
town took place in 1680, and in the plan of the new town, 
1672, as we have seen, a place had been reserved for the 
building of a church, but no church had been built when 
Thomas Ash arrived with the first Huguenots in 1680. In 
a deed dated January 14, 1680-81, by which four acres of 
land were granted to Mr. Williamson, it is recited that the 
donors, Originall Jackson and Meliscent his wife, "being 
excited with a pious zeal for the propagation of the true 
religion which we profess, have for and in consideration of 
the divine service according to the form and liturgy now 
established to be duly and solemnly performed by Atkin 
Williamson cleric his heirs and assigns for ever in our 
church or house of worship to be erected and built upon 
our piece or parcel of ground." ^ It is not known that Mr. 
Jackson owned any land in or near the town. He did own 
land on the Wando or Cooper River. The description of 
tlie land in the deed does not allow of its identification. 
It is probable that this was an attempt to establish a church 

1 It is strange that Bishop Perry, in his Hist, of the Amer. Episcopal 
Ch. (vol. I, 372), should have adopted this extraordinary statement with- 
out examination, particularly as it vi^as inconsistent with his statements 
in the very next paragraph of his work. 

2Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 26. 



332 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in the country in which Mr. Williamson was expected to 
officiate, as well as in the town ; i but this is mere con- 
jecture. Mr. Williamson, in 1709, petitioned the General 
Assembly " to be considered for his services in officiating 
as minister of Charles Town " ; and the act of 1710-11, 
appropriating X30 per annum for his support, states that 
he " had grown so disabled with age, sickness and other 
infirmities, that he could no longer attend to the duties of 
his ministerial function, and was so poor that he could not 
maintain himself." ^ As we have before concluded, it is 
possible that Mr. Williamson came out in 1680. There 
was a clergyman in Carolina in 1689, for it was one of the 
tyrannical acts of Colleton that he fined and imprisoned 
him for preaching what he considered a seditious sermon ; ^ 
but who this was, whether Mr. Williamson or another, is not 
known. Mr. Marshall, as we have just seen, had come out 
to be the minister at Charles Town, but died of yellow fever 
in 1699, before he had been three years in the province. 

Mr. Marshall was an amiable, learned, and pious man, 
whose conduct and talents had given great satisfaction, 
and during whose short career much was done to es- 
tablish the church upon a firm basis. Though Governor 
Blake was not himself a churchman, an act was passed 
during his administration, October 3, 1698, "to settle 
a maintenance on a minister of the Church of England 
in Charles Town." Oldmixon claims great credit for 
his patron. Governor Blake, for the passage and allow- 
ance of this provision as an act of grace upon his part, 
though he was a dissenter ;4 but the recital of the act 

1 Bishop Perry is again mistaken in supposing that it was upon this 
land that the first church, i.e. St. Philip's, was built. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 32. See ante, p. 332. 

3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 410. 

4 Oldmixon, Carolina, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 417. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 333 

(whicli is important, too, in regard to what was soon to 
follow) places its enactment upon the proper ground, 
namely, that of a compliance with the charter of the 
provision.^ 

The act appropriated a salary of £150 per annum to 
the ministers of Charles Town, and directed that a 
negro man and woman and four cows and calves be 
purchased for his use, and paid for out of the public 
treasury.^ In the same year, Affra Coming, the widow 
of John Coming, made a deed, by which she gave to 
the Rev. Samuel Marshall, minister of the Gospel in 
Charles Town, and to his successors, appointed under the 
act just passed, seventeen acres of land adjoining the 
town as a glebe. Upon the death of Mr. Marshall, 
the Governor and Council addressed a letter to the 
Bishop of London, asking him to send another minister, 
telling him of the provision made for his support, and 

1 Dr. Humphrey, the secretary and historian of the " Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," states that upon an inquiry 
instituted by Dr. Compton, Bishop of London, it was ascertained that 
though in the year 1701 there were above 7000 persons besides negroes 
and Indians in South Carolina, and though the province was already 
divided into several parishes and towns, there was until the year 1701 no 
minister of the Church of England resident in the colony at the time. 
{Hist. Account of the Soc. for the Propagation of the Gospel^ etc., 25.) 
This statement is altogether inaccurate : (1) Tliere were not that number 
of persons in the colony at the time (Drayton's View of S'o. Ca., 193; 
Dalcho's Ch. Hist.^ 30); (2) the province was not then divided into par- 
ishes ; there was but one town ; and (3) there were, at that time at least 
two ministers of the Church of England resident and officiating in the 
colony. The Rev. Samuel Marshall, rector of St. Philip's, had died in 
1(590, but Mr. Edward Marston had arrived and taken his place in 1700. 
The Rev. William Corbin was officiating in Goose Creek; and the 
Rev. Atkin Williamson was also in the province, though probably 
disabled. 

'■^ Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 33. This act is not found in the statutes. The 
salary was probably payable in currency. 



334 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

that a good brick house had been built for him upon the 
land given by Mr. Coming. 

The first church, which was known as St. Philip's, was 
built, as before stated, upon the spot reserved for it, 
upon the original plat of the town, i.e. where St. 
Michael's now stands. Dalcho fixes the date of the 
erection at about 1681 or 1682, but there is nothing cer- 
tainly known upon the subject. It was "large and 
stately," it was said, and was surrounded by a neat 
white palisade. It was built of black cypress upon a 
brick foundation. Mrs. Blake, wife of the Governor, 
subsequently contributed liberally towards its adornment, 
though not herself a member of the church.^ 

The Rev. Francis Mackensie, a Presbyterian clergy- 
man of Donegal, Ireland, it is said, visited Carolina in 
the fall of 1683, with serious thoughts of settling at 
Charles Town; but from the little encouragement he 
received, he changed his destination to Virginia.^ Of 
the Rev. William Dunlop, who came out with the Scotch 
colony and settled at Port Royal in 1684, we have 
already spoken.^ 

The mixed Presbyterian and Independent Church, 
known by various names, — the Presbyterian Church, the 
White Meeting,* the Independent Church, the New Eng- 
land Meeting, the Circular Church, — was first organized 
some time between 1680 and 1690. It was at first com- 
posed of Presbyterians chiefly from Scotland and Ireland, 
Congregationalists from Old and New England, and some 
of the French Huguenots, who were strictly Presbyterian 
in their form of church government. The first known 

1 Dalcho' s Ch. Hist., 20. 

2 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 76, 77. 
8 Ante, p. 215. 

4 Whence the name of " Meeting Street." 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 335 

Presbyterian minister in the province, excepting the Rev. 
William Dunlop at Port Royal, was the Rev. Thomas 
Barret, in 1685. His ministry was but temporary. The 
first regular pastor was the Rev. Benjamin Pierpont, in 
1691. He died January 8, 1697-98, and was succeeded by 
a Mr. Adams, of whom little is known ; and he by John 
Cotton of Boston, who sailed from Charles Town Novem- 
ber, 1688, and died September, 1699 ; and he by the Rev. 
William Stobo, upon his providential escape from tlie 
disastrous shipwreck and stranding upon the shores of 
Carolina. It is not known when the original building 
used by the church was erected. It was but forty feet 
square and slightly built. ^ The site whereon the present 
church stands was given by " Madame Symonds " October 
23, 1704. It was long known as the "White Meeting." 2 
The first church of the French Protestants, known as 
the Huguenot Church, was erected at some time between 
the years 1687 and 1693. On the 5th of May, 1687, the 
lot whereon the present church stands was conveyed by 
Ralph Izard and Mary, his wife, to James Nichols ''for 
the use of the commonalty of the French Church in 
Charles Town " ; ^ and in 1693, the congregation complained 
to the Lords Proprietors that they were required to begin 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 124, 126, 145. 

2 Ibid., 124. 

3 It hsLS been supposed probable that the Huguenots built their first 
sanctuary upon the site of the present church early in the year 1681. 
(See Year Book City of Charleston, 1885, 297.) This theory is based 
upon the supposition that Michael Lovinge, the grantee of this lot, was 
but a trustee for the church. But the record shows that this is a 
mistake. Michael Lovinge, the grantee, described as a "sawyer," con- 
veyed the lot to Arthur Middleton, the 24th of November, 1684. Arthur 
Middleton by will devised it to his daughter Mary, who, with her liusband 
Ralph Izai-d, conveyed it to James Nichols for the cliurcli, as stated in 
the text. See Records, Secretary of State's Office Book, marked " Grants, 
Sales," etc., 1704-1708, 250. 



836 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

their divine worship at the same time as the English do, 
which was very inconvenient, as several of them lived out 
of the town and came by water to attend their service, 
and had to dej^end upon the tides.^ There must, then, 
have been a place of worship in which the congregation 
was accustomed to assemble before 1693, and it is but 
reasonable to suppose that this was upon the spot they 
had purchased for the purpose. ^ The Rev. Elias Pi-ioleau, 
pastor of the church at Pons, who, upon the Revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes, left France with a considerable 
number of his congregation in April, 1686, and came to 
Carolina, is regarded as the founder of this church in 
conjunction with the Rev. Florente Philippe Trouillard, 
who were its first ministers. They served the church 
as colleagues, and probably without compensation, both 
ministers and people being dependent alike on secular 
employment. 

One Cesar Moze, a French refugee, by his will written 
in his native language, dated June 20, 1687, bequeathed to 
the church of the French refugees in Charles Town, trente 
sept lieures (thirty-seven livres) to assist in building a 
house of worship in the neighborhood of his plantation 
on the eastern branch of the Cooper River.^ As already 
mentioned, it is probable that Elias Prioleau ministered 
to this congregation. The Rev. de La Pierre is supposed 
to have been their first pastor. There was another settle- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 438. 

2 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 109. Mr. Fraser, in his Eeminiscences of 
Charleston, says tliat the great fire of June, 1796, "burnt the original 
French Church where the Huguenot refugees worshipped for upwards of 
a century previous to that time." (pp. 3o, 34.) But Shecut states that 
the original church (which he says was built in 1701) was burnt in 1740 
with all its records. 

3 Probate office, Charleston, South Carolina, Will Book; Howe's Hist. 
Presb. Ch., 108. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 337 

ment and church of the Huguenots on the western branch 
of Cooper River, of which Anthony Cordes, un medecin, 
who arrived in Charles Town in 1686, was one of the 
founders. Their first pastor was Rev. Florente Philippe 
Trouillard, whom we have just found associated with Elias 
Prioleau in the pastorship of the church in Charles Town. 
The Rev. Pierre Robert was the first pastor of the church 
in French Santee. Indeed, he is said to have been the first 
Calvinistic minister who preached in South Carolina ; and 
it is deemed questionable whether this church was not 
older even than that in Charles Town. The Huguenots 
on Goose Creek are not known to have formed an organ- 
ized congregation.^ 

Most of the members of the Baptist colony had moved 
to Charles Town before 1693. At first their meetings 
were held in the house of William Chapman in King 
Street. In 1699 William Elliott, one of the members, 
gave the church the lot of land on Church Street on which 
the First Baptist Church in Charleston now stands, and a 
house of worship was erected on this lot in that or the 
year following.^ 

No considerable groups of settlers are known to have 
emigrated to South Carolina between the years 1696 and 
1730, nor does the white population appear to have in- 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 111-113. There is, however, an old plat of 
a plantation, on one of the head branches of Goose Creek, made by Joseph 
Purcell, Surveyor, in July, 1785, on which a spot is marked "Remains of 
a French Church." See Deed, 3Iesne Conveyance OtJice Book G, No. 6, 
95. 

2 Hist, of the First Baptist Ch., 65. The first church building was, 
however, abandoned for another built on the east side of the street in 
1746, the old lot on the west side continuing to be the burial-ground of 
the members. The present edifice on the old lot on the west, side was 
erected in 1822, and the building on the east became the Mariners' 
Church, which was destroyed in the earthquake of 1880. See Shecut's 
Essat/s, 5, 29. 

z r"^ 



338 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

creased at all until after 1T15. In 1699 it was, as we 
know, probably about 5500. In 1708, as we shall here- 
after see, it had actually declined to 4080. There was a 
decrease also in the number of negroes during this period. 
The losses by smallpox and yellow fever will probably 
account for much of this ; but the neglect and mismanage- 
ment of the Proprietors, and the struggle over the estab- 
lishment of the churcli which we are soon to record, no 
doubt retarded the progress of the colony. We may 
assume, therefore, that the proportion of the various de- 
nominations in the colony was about the same in 1710 as 
it was at the time of which we are now treating. In a 
letter written in that year by a Swiss gentleman in Charles 
Town to his friend at Bern, it is stated that the propor- 
tions that the several parties in religion bore to the whole 
and to each other were as follows : Church of England 4| 
to 10 ; Presbyterians, including those French who retained 
their own discipline, ^ to 10 ; Anabaptists 1 to 10 and 
Quakers i to lO.i In this estimate, for it is nothing 
more. Independents and Congregationalists, as Avell as 
Huguenots, are included as Presbyterians. There were in 
the colony at this time eight ministers of the Church of 
England, three French Protestants, two of whom had 
accepted Episcopal rule and observed the services of the 
church, four of British Presbyterians, one of Anabaptists. 
The ministers of the Church of England had, by the act of 
170G, each XlOO per annum from the public treasury be- 
sides contributions and perquisites from their parishioners. 
The dissenting ministers were maintained by voluntary 
contributions.^ 

In 1701 a movement was consummated in London by 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 163; A Letter from So. Ca., etc., London, 
1722 (second edition), 46. 

2 Ibid., and Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 432. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 339 

the formation and incorporation of " The Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," which exer- 
cised a great influence in this colony, not only in religious 
matters, but in the education of its youth. Several eminent 
persons, observing the want of clergy in the colonies of 
England and probably also the unfortunate character of 
some who had gone out to the provinces, had for some 
time before contributed to an effort for recovering their 
countrymen abroad from irreligion and darkness. Fel- 
lowships had been established in Oxford, the beneficiaries of 
which should be under obligation to take holy orders for 
service in his Majesty's foreign plantations, and salaries 
were provided for " preaching ministers." 

The society resolved not to obtrude the Episcopal 
services upon the colonists against their wishes. They 
did not, therefore, send missionaries until applications 
were made for ministers of the Church of England, nor 
until they were assured that adequate means would be 
provided for their comfort and support. So liberal, indeed, 
was this society that in some instances they supported 
clergymen who were not episcopally ordained. As in- 
stances : the two Huguenots, the Rev. de La Pierre of St. 
Denis and Rev. P. de Richbourg of St. James, Santee 
(1715-20). The society was very minute in its instruc- 
tions to the clergy they employed. They were to keep in 
view the great design of their undertaking ; to promote 
the glory of Almighty God and the salvation of men, by 
propagating the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour. The 
directions in regard to the instruction of negroes were still 
more minute and explicit, containing the simple statement 
in logical order and consequence of the substance of the 
Christian religion. 

The society was equally careful in its directions to their 
schoolmasters, and impressed upon them that the end of 



340 HISTOIIY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

their employment was the instructing and disposing chil- 
dren to believe and live as Christians. They were re- 
quired to oblige their scholars to attend regularly upon 
the services of the church and to have them publicly cate- 
chised. " They were to take special care of their manners 
both in and out of school ; warning them seriously of 
those vices to which children are most liable ; teaching 
them to abhor lying and falsehood and to avoid all sorts 
of evil speaking ; to love truth and honesty ; to be modest 
gentle well-behaved, just and affable, courteous to all 
their companions ; respectful to their superiors particu- 
larly towards all that minister in holy things and espe- 
cially to the minister of their Parish." ^ 

These instructions of the sooiety are particularly perti- 
nent to the history of South Carolina, as it was in this 
province that the society commenced its labors, and in- 
deed did the most of its work. Its influence remained 
not only in the religious sentiment of the people, but in 
their system of education, which the masters from Oxford 
sent out by them, based upon a classical foundation. 

The first missionary sent out by the society upon the 
application of the Governor and Council was the Rev. 
Samuel Thomas, who was appointed in June, 1702. His 
original mission was not to the colonists, but to the Yam- 
assee Indians, who surrounded the settlements; but 
Governor Johnson, not deeming it a convenient season foi 
that duty, appointed him to the care of the church at 
Goose Creek. His ministry, however, though attended 
with considerable success, was but a brief one ; on his 
return from England, to which he had gone on a visit, he 
died in 1705. 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 50. 



CHAPTER XV 

1700 

At the opening of the new century, says Rivers, we 
must cease to look upon South Carolina as the home of 
indigent emigrants struggling for subsistence.^ The colony 
had now substantial numbers, and its various elements 
had begun to settle themselves into somewhat ot" a com- 
munity. The spirit of adventure had, in a measure at least, 
given way to the more sober purpose of citizenship. A 
review of its material condition will show what had been 
accomplished in the thirty years since the arrival of the 
first emigrants. 

The population, which, as we have seen, was about 5500 
besides Indians and negroes, was still clustered around 
the town in a comparatively small area ; more than half, 
about 3000, were inhabitants of the town. There were, at 
least, 250 families residing in it, many of them having ten 
or twelve children each. The town still, however, com- 
prised only the space between the bay and the present 
Meeting Street. The principal street running through 
its whole length was the present Church Street. The 
cross streets were Queen, Broad, Elliot, and Tradd, though 
not then bearing these names. It was fortified, says Old- 
mixon, more for beauty than strength. It had six bastions, 
and a line all around it. There were three bastions on 
Cooper River. Craven Bastion was on the nortlieast corner 
of the town, at the end of what is now Market Street ; 

1 Chapter in Colonial Hist. (Rivers). 
341 



342 HISTORY OF SOUTFI CAROLINA 

Blake's Bastion at the end of Broad Street, about where 
now stands the Old Exchange, the postoffice ; Granville's 
Bastion stood where the battery now begins. From this 
point a creek ran up what is now Water Street, and a line 
of palisades extended on its northern bank, through what 
is now S toll's Alley and the Baptist churchyard, to the 
corner of Tradd Street ; thence along what is now Meet- 
ing Street to Cumberland ; the northern line running 
diagonally from about the corner of Meeting and Cumber- 
land to what is now Market Wharf. At the intersection 
of Broad Street was a half-moon, a little later called John- 
son's Raveline, across which there was a drawbridge. 
Carteret Bastion was on the northwest corner, where 
Cumberland and Meeting streets now meet. 

The only public buildings were the churches, an account 
of which was given in the last chapter. Charles Town was 
the market town, and thither the whole product of the 
province was brought for sale.^ Archdale declares that 
the road out of the town, which he says was called the 
Broadway, was so delightful a road and walk, so beautiful 
with odoriferous and fragrant woods, and pleasantly green 
all the year, that he believed no prince in Europe, by all 
his art, could make so pleasant a sight.^ There were also 
several fine streets in the town, says Oldmixon, and some 
very handsome buildings, as Mr. Landgrave Smith's house 
on the bay, with a drawbridge and wharf to it; Colonel 
Rhett's, also on the bay, and with drawbridge and wharf. 
He mentions also Mr. Boone's, Mr. Logan's, Mr. Schin- 
kingh's, and ten or twelve others which deserve notice. 
There was a public library in the town, he says, and a free 
school was talked of.^ 

1 British Empire in Am.^ vol. I, 610 (Oldmixon). 

2 Arch lale, in Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 95. 

3 British Empire in Am., vol. T, 511. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 343 

Lawson, who wrote about the same time, gave this de- 
scription : 1 — 

" The Town," he says, " has very regular and fair Streets 
in which are good Buildings of Brick and Wood, and since 
my coming thence has had great Additions of beautiful, 
large Brick building besides a strong Fort and regular 
Fortifications to defend the Town. The inhabitants by 
their wise Management and Industry have much improv'd 
the Country which is in as thriving Circumstances at this 
time as any Colony on the Continent of English America, 
and is of far more Advantage to the Crown of G-reat 
Britain than any of the other more Northerly Plantations 
(^Virginia and itfar^^awc? excepted). This colony was at 
first planted by a genteel sort of People that were well 
acquainted with Trade and had either Money or Parts to 
make good use of the Advantages that offered as most of 
them have done by raising themselves to great Estates 
and considerable Places of Trust and Posts of Honour in 
this thriving Settlement. Since the first Planters abun- 
dance of French and others have gone over and rais'd 
themselves to considerable Fortunes. They are very neat 
and exact in Packing and Shipping their Commodities ; 
which Method has got them so great a Character abroad 
that they generally come to a good Market with their 
Commodities, when often times the Product of other 
Plantations are forc'd to be sold at lower Prizes. They 
have a considerable Trade both to Europe and the West 
Indies whereby they become rich and are supply'd with 
all Things necessary for Trade and genteel Living which 
several other Places fall short of. Their cohabiting in a 
Town has drawn to them People of most Sciences, whereby 
they have Tutors amongst them that educate their Youth 
a-la-mode." 

1 A New Voyage to Carolina, etc., 2, 3. 



344 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The first act in order of time found remaining when the 
statutes were compiled in 1837 was one entitled " An act 
for the settling of a pilot^'" April 11, 1685. ^ It was, how- 
ever, so defaced as to be illegible, but we have preserved 
one passed under Sothell, March 25, 1691, no doubt based 
upon that of 1685. This a2:)pointed three regular pilots 
who were required to make it their business to look out 
for ships coming into the harbor, regulating their conduct 
and prescribing the rates of pilotage.^ In 1694 an addition 
to this act was made providing for the maintenance of a 
watch on Sullivan's Island as well.^ In 1696 this was 
again added to and amended, and rates for bringing in 
vessels by the different channels prescribed.^ These pilots 
Lawson found on duty when he arrived in 1700.^ There 
was need of them; for from the town could now be seen 
entering the harbor vessels from Jamaica, Barbadoes, and 
the Leeward Islands, from Virginia and the other colonies, 
and the always welcome ships from England. About 
twelve of these ships were owned by the colonists, half 
of which were built by themselves.^ These were, however^ 
small; for, unhappily, the bar across the mouth of the liarbor 
admitted no ships of above 200 tons.''' Archdale, writing 
in 1707, says he could demonstrate Avhat a great advantage 
Carolina is to the trade of England by consuming com- 
modities from thither, and by bringing great duties to the 

1 Statutes, vol. II, 3. s /ft^-^.^ 93. 

2 Ibid., 50. 4 Ibid., 127. 
^ A lieio Voyage to Carolina, 6. 

^ Chapter in Colonial Hist. (Rivers). 

' British Empire in Am., vol. I, 570. 

Yet in an offer made by the Assembly in 1703 to supply a frigate with 
provisions, if one should be sent from England to cruise on the coast, it 
is said that Charles Town bar had "thirteen feet of water at high tide- 
water at neap tides, and fifteen feet at spring tides at least," and Port 
Royal eighteen feet at low tides and twenty-four at high water on ordi- 
nary tides. Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 202, note. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 345 

Crown by importing goods or commodities thence : " For 
Charles Town trades near 1000 miles into the continent." 
That notwithstanding all the discouragements the town 
had met withal, yet seventeen ships that year came thence 
to London in the Virginia fleet laden from Carolina with 
rice, skins, pitch, and tar, besides several stragglers.^ 

The neck of land between Cooper and Ashley rivers, 
about six miles in length, was well settled. One passed 
about this time, in riding up the road which Archdale 
described as so beautiful, the plantations of Mathews, 
Green, Starkey, Gray, Grimball, Dickeson, and Izard on 
the Cooper ; and further up those of Sir John Yeamans, 
Landgrave Bellinger, Colonel Gibbs, Mr. Schenkingh, 
Colonel Moore, and Colonel Quarry. On the Ashley Land- 
grave West, Colonel Godfrey, and Dr. Trevillian had planta- 
tions. Goose Creek was thickly settled. On the western 
branch of the Cooper River the most noted plantations 
were " Coming T," the plantation of Captain John Com- 
ings, the same who had come out with Halsted, and Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson's " Silk Hope." In Colleton County 
lived Colonel Paul Grimball, Landgraves Morton, Blake, 
and Ax tell, and Mr. Boone. There were two small towns 
or hamlets besides Charles Town, — Wiltown or New 
London on the South Edisto, containing about eighty 
houses, and Dorchester at the head of the Ashley, con- 
taining about 350 souls.^ 

The Governor generally resided in Charles Town and 
the Assembly sat there, as well as the newly established 
courts. There also the public offices were kept and the 
business of the province transacted. • 

The first fortunes in Carolina were made in the Indian 
trade, a trade which the Proprietors jealously endeavored 

1 Carroll's Coll., vol. TI, 07. 

2 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 512, 513. 



346 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to appropriate to themselves. Guns, powder and shot, 
beads, trinkets, bright-colored cloaks, blankets, and rum 
were exchanged for skins and furs of wild animals and 
other Indian pelfry. With the exception of rice, the furs 
and skins obtained from the Indians continued to be the 
most valuable commodity in the colonial trade as late as 
1747.1 

Dr. Henry Woodward, it will be remembered, was the 
first explorer of the province. From his sojourn with the 
Indians, when left by Sandford in 1666, he became an 
interpreter of their languages, and as such was employed 
by the Governor and Council in their communications and 
treaties with them. In 1671 Sir John Yeamans sent him 
to Virginia upon an expedition of discovery, upon which 
occasion, reciting the hazardous and dangerous nature of 
the adventure he was about to undertake, he executed a 
will of all his property in Sir John's favor, wliich will is 
among the first records of the colony.^ There were many 
complaints to the Proprietors of this mission, implying 
that the expedition was for the private advantage of Sir 
John and himself. Dalton, tlie Secretary, wrote that it 
might "be dangerous to follow the fancies of roving 
heads," and asked that a skilful engineer should be sent.^ 
Woodward was still employed, however, by the Proprie- 
tors, and in 1674 was commissioned to treat with the 
Indians of Edisto for the purchase of that island, and 
was allowed to have one-fifth of the profits of the Indian 
trade.'* He was evidently not a favorite of Governor 
West, during whose administration lie appears to have 

1 Governor Glen's Description of So. Ca., Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 234- 
237. 

2 Probate office, Charleston, South Carolina, and Secretary of State's 
office, Columbia, South Carolina, 

8 Calendar State Papers, Colonial, 1670-74, 736-746. 
4 Ibid., 1287. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 347 

been convicted of some misdemeanor by the Grand Coun- 
cil and condemned to pay <£100; a part of which he paid, 
and .left the province. The Proprietors, however, pardoned 
him ; and again, on the 23d of May, 1682, commissioned 
him to return to Carolina and make further explorations.^ 
There is no account of his subsequent career. 

In Archdale's time, as we have said, Charles Town 
traded near 1000 miles into the Continent.^ Among the 
principal Indian traders were Colonel Bull, Governor 
Blake, and James Moore.^ James Moore, who first ap- 
peared as one of the leaders of the people in 1684, was 
also a great adventurer and Indian trader. He was a 
member of the Council as deputy of Sir John Colleton, 
and Secretary of the province. He it was of whom Ran- 
dolph wrote to the Lords of Trade, in March, 1798-99, that 
he had heard one of the Council (a great Indian trader 
who had been 600 miles up in the country west of Charles 
Town) declare that the only way to discover the Missis- 
sippi was from the province by land. This he was willing 
to undertake if his Majesty would pay the charge of the 
expedition, .£400 or £500. He proposed to employ 50 
white men and 100 Indians, and had no doubt but that in 
five or six months after his Majesty's commands he would 
find its mouth and latitude.* 

The real object of this expedition Moore proposed was 
not, however, the discovery of the Mississippi, but the 
exploring of gold and silver mines. In 1691 he had made 
a journey into the Appalachian Mountains, in which jour- 
ney he had found several pieces of ore which he had sent 
to England to be assayed, and some of which had been 

1 Public Beconls of So. Ca. (MSS.), vol. I, 159. 

2 Carroll's Coll., vol. 11, 97. 

3 Ibid., 108; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. T, 217. 
* Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 445. 



348 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

reported to be very valuable, and he now wished to make 
further exploration at his Majesty's expense. In the 
meanwhile, one Thomas Cutler had come out with a cpra- 
mission from the Lords of Trade to search for mines, but 
he was wholly inexperienced in the matter, and relied en- 
tirely upon the stories which two brothors-in-law of his in 
Carolina, Edward Loughton and David Maybanck, had 
gathered from the Indians. Moore soon persuaded Cutler 
that he alone possessed the necessary information and 
skill to find and develop the mines, and induced him to 
return to London to represent to the Board of Trade that 
he, Moore, was a person of known experience, judgment, 
and great power among the Indians, and had more perfect 
knowledge of the mines than those they had first relied 
upon. The Board of Trade, however, very curtly informed 
Mr. Cutler and his friend, Mr. Smith, who accompanied 
him, " that their Lordships do not concern themselves nor 
meddle in what Captain Moore desires of them & what 
they the said Smith and Cutler think fit to do upon his 
request." ^ We hear no more of the mines in Carolina. 

Both cotton and rice had been exported from Carolina 
before the end of the seventeenth century. Hewatt and 
Ramsay credit Landgrave Smith with the introduction of 
rice culture. The former gives an interesting story of a 
bag of seed rice, obtained by him from a brigantine from 
the Island of Madagascar, touching here on the Avay to 
Great Britain in 1698, and his distribution of it between 
Stephen Bull, Joseph Woodward, and some other friends, 
who agreed to make the experiment, and planted their 
several parcels in different soils.^ But Rivers very prop- 
erly declines to adopt this account, and points to an act of 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., Appendix, 447, 453. 

" Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 118 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. II, 200. 



UNDER THE PEOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 349 

Assembly in 1691 conferring a reward upon Peter Jacob 
Guerard, inventor of a '' Pendulum engine " for husking 
rice, whicli it was said was superior to any machine pre- 
viously used in the colony.^ Rice was, with indigo, one 
of the plants to be tried by West on tlie experimental 
farm under instructions of July, 1669. 

In a bill of lading, 1671, from London, per ship William 
aiid Ralph bound for Charles Town, Ashley River, there 
was, among other articles in the cargo, " a barrel of Rice." 
Mayor Courtenay, in his address upon the centennial of 
the incorporation of Charleston, quotes from a curious 
pamphlet by a gentleman in 1731, long resident in Caro- 
lina, "Dr. Woodward's" name, mentioned as receiving a 
parcel of seed rice from " Madagascar." Dr. Woodward 
appears, however, to have been ignorant for some years 
how to clean it for use. He quotes also from this pam- 
phlet that it was likewise " reported that Du Bois, Treas- 
urer of the East India Company, did send to Charles Town 
at an early date a small bag of seed rice, some short time 
after Dr. Woodward's planting of Rice, from whence it is 
reasonable enough to suppose might come those two sorts 
called Red Rice — from the redness of the inner husk — and 
white Rice, though they both clean and become white 
alike." ^ From these accounts it is quite certain that rice 
was received fi'om Madagascar and experimented upon by 
Smith, Bull, Woodward, and others, but had been intro- 
duced and planted before. However introduced, rice soon 
became the staple commodity of the province, and the 
advantageous employment of Africans in its cultivation 
greatly increased the demand for negro slaves. The wet, 
deep, miry soil of the cypress swamp, in which rice was 
found to grow so luxuriantly, especially when turned in 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 172; Statutes, vol. II, 63. 

2 Year Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1883, 395. 



350 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

cultivation, proved to be fatal to the white man, but con- 
genial to the negro from Africa. 

Notwithstanding the failure of the Huguenots to estab- 
lish the manufacture of silk, the attempt was made by Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson upon a plantation settled by him in 
what was afterwards St. Thomas' Parish, called Silk Hope, 
and in 1699 he was able to present to the Proprietors a 
sample of silk made by him.^ When Oldmixon wrote 
(1707), Sir Nathaniel was making from X300 to <£400 
yearly from silk alone. Others, encouraged by him, also 
experimented, and some families were then making from 
<£40 to X50 a year without neglecting their other planta- 
tion w^ork. Little negro cliildren were employed in feed- 
ing the silkworms. Silk and wool were manufactured 
into druggets.^ As mulberry trees grow spontaneously 
in Carolina, and native silkworms producing well-formed 
cocoons are often found in the woods, it appears that this 
country was well adapted to the development of the indus- 
try ; but though again tried by the Swiss near Purysburg 
in 1731, and again by the French colony at New Bor- 
deaux, Abbeville, in 1764, its manufacture has never been 
persevered in, probably, says Dr. Ramsay, because there 
were easier modes of making money .^ 

The produce of the Indian trade, rice, and the silk that 
was made, were sent to England ; beef, pork, corn, peas, 
butter, tallow, hides, tanned leather, hogshead and barrel 
staves and hoops to the West Indies. Tliough there were 
no cattle in the province upon the first coming of the 
colony, they had increased to such an extent in thirty 
years that not only did beef and pork constitute two of 
the principal commodities of export, but wild cattle became 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 149. 

2 British Empire in Am.., vol. I, 517. 

3 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 220. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 351 

almost as great a nuisance in Carolina as the rabbit in 
later years in Australia. In 1695, as we have seen, an 
act had been passed for destroying unmarked cattle in con- 
sequence of the inability of penning and marking them 
at that time, by reason of a hurricane which had rendered 
the woods difficult of travel. Eight years afterwards an- 
other act upon the subject was deemed necessary. This 
act, which recited that the great numbers of wild, unmarked, 
and outlying cattle had drawn the tame cattle from their 
ranges, and also ate up the winter food, curiously assum- 
ing that every master or mistress of a plantation owned 
"such cattle," required every owner of a plantation 
who would not swear that, to the best of his know- 
ledge, he did not own 100 head to any one or more of 
his stock houses or cow pens to send one man for every 
100 head to commissioners appointed under the act to 
hunt for, kill, and take wild and unmarked cattle. The 
men so sent were to be mounted, and to hunt under the 
direction of the commissioners. The owners of any marked 
cattle taken up in this way were allowed to claim and 
prove their property under provision of the act.^ This 
prolific produce of cattle in the swamps of the low country 
was the origin of the stock law of South Carolina whicli 
so long impeded the full cultivation of the soil by requir- 
ing planters to maintain fences to keep out cattle from 
their plantations and farms, rather than the owners of 
cattle to provide enclosures for keeping them in ; a policy 
which existed and extended all over the State for more than 
two hundred years, being only abandoned in the year 1882.^ 
Oldmixon states that some persons had 1000 head of black 
cattle each. For one man to have 200 was very common. 
Hogs were in great abundance, roving for miles, feeding 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 220. 

2 Ihid., vol. XVII, 691. 



352 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

on nuts and roots.^ Lawson says that the stocks of cattle 
were incredible, being from 1000 to 2000 head in one man's 
possession.'-^ 

The black cattle did not, however, have the swamps to 
themselves ; these regions were still alive with beasts of 
prey, from which the planters suffered mucli, and so re- 
wards were offered in 1703 for their destruction; a white 
man was offered lO^. for every wolf, tiger (panther), or 
bear killed by himself or his slave and 5s. for every wild 
cat; an Indian was offered 5s. for every wolf or tiger and 
2s. 6d. for every wild cat.^ 

The first attempt to establish a postoffice in the colony 
was made in 1698. In an act for raising a public store of 
powder, provision was made requiring every master of a 
ship arriving in the province to deliver all the letters in 
his custody, with an exact list of them, to Mr. Francis 
Fidling and to no other, and this list Mr. Fidling was 
required to fix up in some public place in his liouse, to 
be viewed by persons who desired to do so. He was to 
deliver the letters to whom they were addressed and to 
mark the delivery on the list. He was to receive for each 
letter or packet one-half royal postage.^ In 1702 another 
act upon the subject was passed, entitled "^w act to erect a 
General Postoffice'"' ; but it did little more than appoint 
Mr. Edward Bourne postmaster in place of Mr. Fidling.^ 

In the same year that a postoffice was established in the 

1 British Empire inAm.^ vol. I, 520, 521. 

2 A New Voyage to Carolina^ 4. 

3 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 215. 

* Ibid., 153, Section X, of an act entitled ^^An act for the raising of a 
public store of Poioder for the defence of the province^ 

^ Ibid., 189. Ill 1()92 a Royal patent was granted to Thomas Neale to 
establish postoffices in America, which was recognized by an act of Assem- 
bly in A^'irginia. Bruce's Economic Hist, of Va., vol. II, 240. We find 
no mention of it in Carolina. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 853 

colony, i.e. in 1698,^ a public library was formed by the 
elforts of the Rev. Thomas Bray, the Bishop of London's 
commissary in Maryland, with the aid of the Lords 
Proprietors and contributions of the Carolinians, and was 
placed under the charge of the minister of the Church of 
England. This, it is believed, was the first public library 
in America. In the year 1700 an act was passed ^^for se- 
curifig the Provincial Lih^ary at Charles Town^'' by which 
commissioners and trustees were appointed for its preser- 
vation.2 On the 16th of January, 1703, Nicholas Trott 
informs the House of Commons that Dr. Bray had sent 
sundry books as a further addition to the public library, 
together with additional books for a layman's library, 
upon which he was instructed to write to Dr. Bray 
returning thanks for them.^ In May following the Re- 
ceiver was instructed to pay Edward Moseley X5 15s. for 
transcribing the catalogue of the library books.* In the 
church acts of 1704 and of 1706 a room was reserved 
in the rectory of the minister of Charlestown for this 
library ;^ and in that of 1712, also reserving the room in 
the parsonage, other commissioners were named in the 
place of five who had died, and provision was supplied 
for supplying vacancies thereafter. The provision of this 
latter act we shall give more fully hereafter. By the first 
act all inhabitants, without any exception, were at liberty to 
borrow any book out of the library, giving a receipt for the 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 231 ; MSS. Journals House of 
Commons, 1698. 

2 These commissioners were James Moore (then Governor), Joseph 
Morton, Nicholas Trott, Ralph Izard, Esq., Captain Job Howes, 
Captain Thomas Smith, Mr, Robert Stevens, Mr. Joseph Crosskeys, and 
Mr. Robert Fenwick. Statutes of So. Ca., vol. 11, 374. 

3 MSS. Journals, 1703. 

4 Ibid. 

s Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 237, 286. 
2a 



354 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

same ; but, as we shall see, the act of 1712 put it in the 
power of the librarian to refuse to lend books in certain 
cases. There were also parochial libraries established by 
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and after- 
wards by Sir Francis Nicholson and other charitable 
persons. These the commissioners were also instructed to 
examine by the catalogue. The parochial libraries were 
probably only of religious works; but the public library 
in Charlestown was a library for laymen as well.^ 

As before suggested, the Barbadian element in the 
colony naturally exerted the greatest influence upon the 
development of its society. The charter required that 
the laws should be as near as may be to the laws of 
England; but these were also to be suitable to the novel 
conditions of the new province. In the other colonies of 
America society was built up from its ver}^ foundations 
upon the peculiar circumstances of each. Its structure 
in each instance was entirely new. But many of the 
earliest settlers of Carolina coming from Barbadoes, where 
a colonial society was already fully developed, as before ob- 
served, brought with them customs and precedents upon 
which that of South Carolina was formed. 

In 1674 upon the Island of Barbadoes, which was not 
much larger than the Isle of Wight, there Avere 50,000 
whites and 80,000 negroes, — 130,000 souls in all. In fifty 
years, since the foundation of the English colony there, 
a social order had been established and developed upon 
tlie basis of African slavery. As it was this which the 
Barbadians brought with them to Carolina, some account 
of its condition at this time will not here be out of place. 

Oldmixon tells us that the inhabitants of Barbadoes 

1 Statutes of So. Ca, vol. II, 374. The new commissioners under this 
act were Hon. Charles Braun, Governor Arthur Middleton, Charles Hart, 
Colonel George Logan, and Colonel Hugh Grange. 



UNDER THE PROPJMETARY GOVERNMENT 355 

were ranked in three orders : Masters, — wlio were either 
English, Scots, or Irish, with some few Dntch, French, 
and Portugnese Jews, — white servants, and slaves. The 
white servants were either by covenant or purchase; there 
were two sorts, — such as sold themselves in England, 
Scotland, or Ireland for four years or more, and such as 
were transported by the government of England for capi- 
tal crimes. The gentlemen of Barbadoes scorned, he says, 
to employ any of the latter sort until the late sickness — 
a pestilential distemper in 1692, supposed to have been 
introduced by soldiers returning from an expedition to 
the Leeward Islands, which swept away many of the 
people, including numbers of negroes — had reduced them 
to great want of hands. Of the other white servants, 
poor men's children whether driven thither by necessity 
or discontent, many, behaving themselves honestly and 
laboriously, had raised themselves, after their servitudes 
were over, to be masters of plantations. 

The masters, merchants, and planters lived like little 
sovereigns on their plantations : they had their servants 
of the household and those of the field ; their tables were 
spread every day with variety of nice dishes, and their 
attendants were more numerous than many of the nobility 
in England; their equipages were rich ; their liveries fine, 
their coaches and horses the same ; their chairs, chaises, 
and all the conveniences of their travelling magnificent. 
The most wealthy of them, besides their land equipages, 
had their pleasure boats to make the tour of the island in 
and sloops to convey their goods to and from the Biidge 
(Bridge Town). 

Their dress and that of their ladies was fashionable and 
courtly, and having been generally bred in London, their 
behavior was genteel and polite ; in which, says the 
author, they had the advantage of most of the country 



856' HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

gentlemen of England, who, living at a distance from 
London, frequent the world very little, and from convers- 
ing always with their dogs, horses, and rude peasants 
acquire an air suitable to their society. The gentlemen 
of Barbadoes were civil, generous, hospitable, and ver}' 
sociable. 

"In short," says Oldmixon, "the inhabitants of Barba- 
does live as plentifully and some of them as luxuriously as 
any in the world. Thc}^ have everything that is requisite 
for pomp and luxury ; they are absolute lords of all things 
— life and limb of their servants excepted — within their 
own territory, and some of them have no less than 700 or 
800 negroes, who are themselves and their posterity their 
slaves forever." ^ 

James Anthony Froude, in his work on " The English 
in the West Indies," gives a similar description of the 
society of Barbadoes, taken from an account of Pere Labat, 
a French missionary who visited the island about the time 
of which we write. The contemporaneous descriptions of 
Labat of Barbadoes and Lawson of Carolina correspond in 
a remarkable manner. Lawson found no such brilliant 
jewellers and silversmith shops in Charles Town as Labat 
did in Bridge Town, for Barbadoes was much older and 
as yet much richer, but the society they describe is the 
same. The merchants of Carolina, says Lawson, are fair 
and frank traders. The gentlemen seated in the country 
are very courteous, live very nobly in their houses, and 
give very genteel entertainments to all strangers and 
others that come to visit them. Both seem equally struck 
with the well-disciplined militia, especially their horse. 
In Bridge Town a review was held for Labat, in which 
500 gentlemen turned out, admirably mounted and armed. 

Lawson says that the horsemen in Carolina are mostly 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. II, 128. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 357 

gentlemen and well mounted and the best in America. 
Their officers, both infantry and cavalry, generally appear 
in scarlet mountings as rich as in most regiments belong- 
ing to the Crown, which, he observes, shows the richness 
and grandeur of the colony. ^ 

The Barbadian settlers thus brought with them a colo- 
nial society already to a considerable degree formed, and 
with their slaves they brought the slave code as it existed 
in Barbadoes. Under this code the condition of the black 
slave was only worse than that of the white servants be- 
cause their servitude was perpetual. Indeed, the negro 
slave had the great security that if he died his owner lost 
his pecuniary value ; whereas by the death of a white 
indented servant the loss was only that of two or three 
years' wages. The master was accordingly rendered more 
careful of his slaves than of hired servants. 

The Proprietors, as we have seen, had offered induce- 
ments to those who would bring out Avhite servants, and 
others had been sent by the government, condemned to 
servitude as punishment for crimes or political offences. 
Owing, however, to the large numbers of negro slaves 
imported into the colony, not many white servants were 
induced to come of their own accord, and fortunately 
fewer criminals were sent to South Carolina than to other 
colonies. 

At the time of the settlement of Carolina negro slavery 
was a recognized institution in all the European colonies ; 
it was assumed that it would exist also in Carolina. Four 
of the Pro^Drietors of Carolina, — the Earl of Shaftesbury, 
Earl Craven, Sir George Carteret, and Sir Peter Col- 
leton, — Ralph Marshall and Jolui Portman, who came out 
with Sayle, were members of the Royal African Company 

1 The JEiiglish in the West Indies (Froude), 27; A New Voyage to 
Carolina (Lawson), 3. 



358 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

with James, then Duke of York, which was chartered and 
given the sole trade in slaves on the African coast. ^ We 
find it provided by the philosopher Locke in his Constitu- 
tions that " every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute 
power and authority over his negro slaves of what opinion 
or religion soever." The significance of this provision 
was not in recognition of slavery as an institution of the 
province — that was assumed; nor yet in the absolute 
power it proposed to give to the freeman over his slave, 
great as that was, but in the last words, wherein it was in- 
tended to provide against the effect of the possible conver- 
sion and baptism of the negroes. A doubt had arisen and 
prevailed extensively upon this point. The idea was that 
as the enslavement of negroes was chiefly justified on the 
ground that they were heathen, upon their becoming 
Christians they would be released from bondage. It is 
curious to observe the effect of this scruple, which appears 
to have been honestly entertained. Some Christian mas- 
ters, rather than offend their consciences by holding fellow- 
Christians in slavery, withheld the Gospel from these 
people lest they might hear and believe and be converted, 
and become as one of themselves. We shall see hereafter 
how Church and State agreed in dispelling this idea.^ 

The first statutory provision relating to slaves in Caro- 
lina was an act in 1686 prohibiting trading with them, 
either white or black, servants or slaves. The facility 
with which goods and provisions could be stolen by ser- 
vants and slaves having access at all times to their mas- 
ters' stores was the cause of this provision. No one was 
allowed to buy or sell, bargain or contract, with any of 

1 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sainsbnry), 1069-74, 934. 

2 See article entitled "Slavery in the Province of South Carolina, 
1670-1770," by Edward McCrady. Annual Beport of the American Hist. 
Asso., 1895, 631-673. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNIMENT 359 

them without their masters' privity and consent.^ The 
next, an act of 1687, rehited to white servants coming 
from Europe or other parts of America. To prevent 
frauds between masters and servants arriving in the prov- 
ince without indentures or contracts, it provided that 
those coming from Europe under the age of ten years 
should serve until they arrived at the age of twenty-one 
years ; under the age of fifteen years and above ten should 
serve seven years ; above the age of fifteen years should 
serve five years. A less time of service was prescribed 
for those coming from Barbadoes or other parts of Amer- 
ica.2 In 1691 these acts were revised. Servants absent- 
ing themselves were required to serve additional time 
for every day of absence. On the other hand, it was pro- 
vided that if any master, under the pretext of correction, 
unreasonably whipped or abused a servant, the Grand 
Council might set such servant free or make such order 
as they should deem just ; so, too, the master was required 
to provide good and wholesome food for his servants under 
penalty.'^ 

In the year 1688 two important enactments had been 
made in Barbadoes in regard to negro slaves. The first 
was an act of April 29, declaring negro slaves real estate 
and not chattels, — and providing that they should de- 
scend to the heir and widow of an intestate according 
to the manner and custom of lands of inheritance held 
in fee-j>imple.* The second was a revision of the slave 
code of the island of August 8th.^ These acts formed 
the basis of the first code upon the subject in South Caro- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 22. 

2 76zd, 30. ^ Ibid., 52. 

* The Laivs of Barbadoes, London, 1694 (Act No. 42), Library Hist. 
Soc, Penn. 

s Ibid., No. 82. 



360 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lina. Ill 1690, in Sothell's administration, an act was 
passed, the draft of which was evidently made upon these 
Barbadian enactments. Indeed, the South Carolina statutes 
follow and adopt not only the main feature of these laws, 
but the phraseology as well.^ 

The provision in regard to the devolution of negro prop- 
erty, i.e. that in cases of intestacies it should descend as 
real estate, and not as personal property, was adopted in a 
modified form. After providing that all slaves should 
have convenient clothes, and that no slave should be freed 
by becoming a Christian, the statute went on to enact 
that slaves should not be resorted to in the first instance 
for the payment of debt, but only when other goods and 
chattels of the debtor were not sufficient to satisfy the 
demand of the creditor; that then only so many as were 
necessary for the purpose should be sold ; and that in the 
settlement of estates negroes and slaves should be ac- 
counted for a,s freehold. Negroes were nevertheless always 
returned as personal property in the inventories of intes- 
tates' estates, as the records of the Ordinary's office in 
Charleston abundantly show. This condition continued 
until 1740, when it was declared that negroes and Indian 
slaves should be reputed and adjudged in law to be chat- 
tels personal .2 

The principal other provisions of this code were the 
restriction of the slave to the limits of his master's planta- 
tion or premises except when accompanying the master, or 
with his ticket of leave in writing upon each occasion of 
his going abroad ; the severe punishment of slaves for the 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 343, 344. 

2 Ibid., 347. 

Under the provisions of the revised code of 1705 of Virginia, the slave 
was also declared to be real estate unless held by a merchant who was 
seeking to sell him, in which case he was decided to be personalty. 
Bruce's Economic Hist, of Va.., vol. II, 98. 



UNDER THE PROPlilETARY GOVERNMENT 361 

striking of a white man, extending to branding, burning 
mutilation, and even death upon repeated offences ; the 
arrest and commitment of runaways ; the constant search 
of the houses of slaves for arms, which they were not al- 
lowed to have, and for stolen goods ; the mode of trial of 
slaves for crimes and misdemeanors, i.e. by a court of two 
justices and three freeholders instead of by jury, and the 
punishments prescribed, which were not, in general, greater 
than those inflicted upon white men for similar offences. 

The worst feature of the code was the inadequate 
protection afforded by the terms of the statute to the life 
and limb of the slave. The provision in regard to this, 
was that if any slave, by punishment from the owner for 
running away or other offence, should suffer in life and 
limb, no person should be liable to the law for the same ; 
but if any one out of wilfulness, wantonness, or bloody- 
mindedness should kill a slave, upon conviction he should 
suffer three months' imprisonment and pay the sum of 
<£50 to the owner; a servant killing a slave was to be 
whipped nine and thirty lashes, and to serve the master 
of the slave four years , a person was not to be punished 
for killing a slave stealing in his house, if the slave 
refused to submit.^ These provisions practically placed 
the life or death of the slave in the hands of the master. 
But this terrible power was in a great measure neutralized 
and controlled by the master's interest. To kill or injure 
his slave, whether for doing so the master was punished 
or exculpated by the law, was to impose upon himself a 
pecuniary fine to the extent of the slave's value. The effec- 
tive motive of interest came into the protection of the 
negro's life. It has been pointed out that in Barbadoes 
under this law, while the blacks four times outnum- 
bered the whites, homicide among the whites, though 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. VII, 343-347. 



362 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of rare occurrence and punislied in the same exemplary 
manner as at the Old Bailey, was of more frequent occur- 
rence than the murder of a slave by a freeman.^ 

Such were the main features of the slave code brought 
over by the Barbadians and adopted by the Carolinians. 
However harsh they may appear to the reader of the 
present day, it must be remembered that the penal codes 
under which white men then lived in England and else- 
where were scarcely less so.^ Granting the subordina- 
tion of slavery, the prohibition of slaves' going beyond 
the limits of their masters' plantations was no more than 
that applied to soldiers and sailors, whose liberties do not 
extend beyond the camp, barrack, or ship. So, too, in 
regard to the provision as to a slave striking a white man. 
" Is the soldier who fights the battle of his country and 
lifts his hand against his commanding officer," asks the 
historian of Barbadoes, "more criminal or punished Avith 
less severity than the audacious slave who strikes his 
master? Is the gallant sailor who upholds the nation's 
glory and protects it by his valor and prowess subject to 
a milder punishment, if in a moment of unguarded resent- 
ment he should strike the officer whose orders he is 
bound to obey ? No ; an ignominious death awaits the 
rash offender ; his former services are forgotten and he is 
consigned to a premature grave for his temerity, while the 
slave lives to repeat his crime and exult in his audacity."^ 

The scheme of the Court of Justices and Freeholders 
was taken also from the Barbadian act. And in regard 
to that statute it was observed that the form of trial it 
provided was in all respects competent to the administra- 
tion of justice, "and candid men," continues the author 

1 Hist, of Barbadoes (Poyer), 134, 135. 

2 Blackstone's Com., vol. IV (Sharswood ed.), 377. 

3 The History of Barbadoes (Poyer), 138. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 363 

just quoted, " may probably think that a tribunal consist- 
ing of two magistrates and three jurymen may be as 
capable of deciding justly as the military and naval 
courts martial which are allowed to decide upon the lives 
of freemen." ^ In this connection it may be remarked in 
passing that in the whole system of government brought 
over from Barbadoes, with its interwoven military organi- 
zation and slavery, there is a strong flavor and element of 
martial law — thus the chief executive officer of the court 
was not styled High Sheriff as Locke's Constitutions pro- 
posed, but Provost Marshal. 

1 The History of Barbadoes (Poyer), 140. 



CHAPTER XVI 

1700-1703 

During the first thirty years of the province, the poli- 
tics of the colony had turned upon the recognition or re- 
pudiation of the Fundamental Constitutions of Locke ; the 
terms and regulations of the grants of land ; the collection 
of quit-rents ; and on the one hand the determined strug- 
gle of the people in Carolina to control their own affairs, 
and on the other the languid efforts of the distant Pro- 
prietors, exerted in a desultory and careless manner, to 
maintain their authority. How impotent the Proprietors 
were, Sothell had shown when he assumed the govern- 
ment without his co-proprietors' consent and held it in 
defiance of their wishes until by his conduct he had dis- 
gusted the people whose cause he had assumed to espouse. 

The original colonists had passed away with the old 
century and new men appeared to control the political 
affairs of the province. 

The Fundamental Constitutions were soon to be practi- 
cally abandoned, save as a harmless amusement of the Pro- 
prietors in bestowing some few more provincial titles. But 
the colonists, more restless than ever under the inefficient 
rule of the Proprietors, were encouraged by the government 
at home to oppose it. With new men, new questions were 
to arise and new policies to be pursued ; to end in the 
overthrow of the Proprietary Government and the surren- 
der of the charter. These questions and policies were all 

364 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 365 

involved in those of the mother country, and to under- 
stand the coming events in Carolina, we must take a brief 
glance at the affairs in England out of whicli they grew. 

For Europe in general the Peace of Ryswick of 1697 
was little more than a truce, — a truce to end in the war 
of the Spanish succession. The accession of the Duke of 
Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV, to the Crown of Spain 
might not, of itself, have aroused popular feeling in Eng- 
land to such an extent as to warrant William in declar- 
ing war, had not Louis XIV taken the occasion to expel 
the Dutch garrisons from the fortress of the Netherlands, 
which they had occupied since that treaty, and to replace 
them in February, 1701, by French troops. The people of 
England at this time were utterly averse to war. But 
bitter as the strife was between Whig and Tory, there 
were two things upon which Whig and Tory were agreed : 
neither would suffer France to occupy the Spanish 
Netherlands ; neither would endure a French attack on 
the Protestant succession which the Revolution of 1688 
had established. The seizure of the Dutch barrier, and the 
disclosure of a new Jacobite plot, brought the Parliament 
of 1701, a Parliament mainly of Tories, at once to William's 
support in his demand for a withdrawal of the French. 
While England was still clinging desperately to the hope 
of peace, Louis, who had acknowledged William as King 
and pledged himself to oppose all attacks on his throne, 
in September, 1701, entered the bedchamber at St. Ger- 
main's where James the Second was breathing his last, and 
promised to acknowledge his son, at his death, as King of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland. This act of the French 
King put an end to any question between Whig and Tory. 
Every Englishman supported William in his open resent- 
ment of the insult. The Grand Alliance was formed 
September, 1701, against France and Spain ; and the new 



366 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Parliament, which met in 1702, though still Tory, was now 
as much for war as the Whigs — an army was immediately 
raised, and Marlborough was sent with it to Flanders. 
William died on the 8th of March, 1702, and upon the 
accession of Anne war was at once begun. 

The victory of Blenheim, on the 13th of August, 1704, 
aided to bring about a great change in the political aspect 
of affairs. The Tories, who were now in power, were 
pressing hard the defeated Whigs; the Whigs, however, 
still controlled the House of Lords. But the Tories, if 
willing to support the war abroad, were resolved to use 
the accession of a Stuart, or Queen Anne, to secure their 
own power at home. They resolved, therefore, to make a 
fresh attempt to create a permanent Tory majority in the 
Commons by excluding nonconformists from the munici- 
pal corporations which returned the bulk of the borough 
members, whose political tendencies were, for the most 
part. Whig. The test which prevailed, of receiving the 
sacrament according to the ritual of the Church of Eng- 
land, effective as it was against Roman Catholics, was not 
so against Protestant dissenters, who evaded it by par- 
taking of the communion in a church once in a year, and 
subsequently attending their own chapels ; in doing which, 
they were protected by the Toleration Act. This was 
called " occasional conformity " ; and it was against this 
practice that the Tories introduced a test which, by exclud- 
ing the nonconformists, would have given them the com- 
mand of the boroughs. But it was rejected by the Whig 
House of Lords as often as it was sent up to them.^ 

These great affairs in Europe were all reflected in 
America, and the course of events in Carolina closely 
followed those in England. 

Among the leaders who now appeared were some of 

1 Green's Hist, of the English People, vol. IV, 70-89. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 367 

great ability. Moore and Daniel, though not among the 
first settlers, had each been in the province for some years 
and had already taken an active part in its affairs. The 
more recent comers who were to be prominent in the 
stirring events to follow were Sir Nathaniel Johnson, 
Nicholas Trott, William Rhett, Edmund Bellinger, and 
John Barnwell. 

With James Moore we have already had some casual 
acquaintance as one of the leaders of the opposition to 
Colleton, and whom, with Robert Daniel, the Proprietors 
excluded from their pardon, and more lately as an ad- 
venturous explorer of the province, who, though again in 
the Council of the Proprietors, was ready, according to 
Randolph, to betray their interest. But Randolph, it must 
be remembered, was reckless in his charges against the 
best of the colonists, not only in Carolina, but in every 
other province. This James Moore was supposed to be 
the son of Roger Moore, one of the leaders of the rebellion 
in Ireland in 1641, and an inheritor of the rebellious blood 
of his sire. He had married a daughter of Sir John 
Yeamans, by whom he had a large family.^ He was one 
of '' the Goose Creek men " against whom Ludwell had 
been warned. 

Robert Daniel had come from Barbadoes in 1679. He 
had first appeared in the struggle against Colleton in 
1680 ; and though, with Moore, he had been excluded 
from the Proprietors' pardon, had so recovered his posi- 
tion with their Lordships that we find him in 1698 in 
London in conference with them upon a new set of 
Constitutions for the regulation of the government, and 
coming back bringing not only these new Constitutions, 
but a patent appointing him Landgrave. 

Sir Nathaniel Johnson was altogether the person of 

^ Wheeler's Beminiscences of No. Ca. , 49. 



868 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

highest position who had yet come into the province. 
He was of Keebles worth, in the bishopric of Durham, 
had been a distinguished soldier and a member of Parlia- 
ment. He was a faithful follower and supporter of the 
Stuarts, and at the time of the abdication of James H 
was Governor of the Leeward Islands, residing at Nevis, 
then the most flourishing of that group of islands. Re- 
fusing to take the oaths to William and Mary, he had 
been removed from his position, and had come to Caro- 
lina.^ Here he had devoted himself to the development 
of industries in the province, especially, as we have 
seen, to the making of silk, and had also greatly encour- 
aged the planters in the cultivation of rice and other 
agricultural experiments. These enterprises and his mili- 
tary character had given him great popularity. For some 
reason, it has appeared, he was viewed with jealousy by 
the Proprietors upon his first coming into the province. 

Nicholas Trott^ was a lawyer of London of great learn- 
ing and unbounded ambition, and withal of little prin- 
ciple. He had been sent by the Proprietors of Carolina 
to Providence (now Nassau), one of the Bahama Islands 
within their grant, to supplant Cadwallader Jones, the 
Governor there, against whom there were charges of mis- 
government and high treason. Randolph accused Trott 
of harboring and encouraging pirates, as Jones, he 
charged, had done before him. But this was Randolph's 
common charo-e ag^ainst all the Governors of the colonies. 
Trott was, however, also complained of to King William 
because of his arbitrary conduct, but he remained Gov- 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. II, 198, 244. 

2 "The Trotts of Beccles were worshipful men in the time of Charles 
the first. Mathew Trott was register of the Court of the Commissary of 
Suffolk and a Nicholas Trott had the living of Kingsfield in 1603." — 
Introductory Memoir to the Diary and Autobiography of Edmund Bohun, 
Esq., xxvi. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 869 

ernor of Providence until 1697, when he was recalled,^ 
and upon his return to England was appointed Attorney 
General of Carolina, to which place he came in 1 698. 

William Rhett is said to have been born in London 
in 1666, and to have come to Carolina in 1694 with his 
wife and one child.^ He was a seaman, for we find on 
record a power of attorney, dated September 7, 1699, 
from John and Nicholas Trott of London to Governor 
Blake and others in Carolina, to collect from Captain 
William Rhett " all such sums of money goods wares 
merchandise negro slaves, gold, elephants teeth wax effects 
and things whatsoever " which the said Captain William 
Rhett had in his hands " on account of their being part 
owners of the ship Providence burthen 150 tons, whereof 
the said William Rhett is commander."^ Rhett was a 
man of violent temper, but of great courage and ability, 
and was to render the colony the most brilliant services. 

Daniel, Johnson, Trott, and Rhett were all strong and 
high churchmen. Edmund Bellinger first appears as deputy 
of Thomas Amy in 1697, then as Surveyor General and 
Landgrave in 1698; having with Robert Daniel been in 
London the latter year in consultation with the Proprietors 
upon the last draft of the Constitutions.* John Barnwell 
was a gentleman of Dublin, of influential connections, who 
had come to Carolina led by a spirit of adventure, and 
soon became the Deputy Secretary of the colony. 

Possessed of great abilities and clothed with extensive 
powers, Mr. Trott came recommended especially to Gov- 
ernor Blake, and immediately attained an influential posi- 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 476, vol. II, 428-430 ; Colonial Bec- 
ords of No. Ca., vol. I, 466. 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 507. 

* Probate office, Charleston, Book Miscellaneous Records, 1694-1704. 

* Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 144, 145. 

2b 



370 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tion. Notwithstanding his official character as Attorney 
General under the Proprietors, he appears to have been 
elected to the Assembly as representing the " country 
party" as it was termed, that is, the party of dissenters 
who were principally located in Colleton County. Here 
he at once exhibited the antagonism which marked his 
subsequent career. The Governor and Council on the 
one hand, and the Assembly or House of Commons on tlie 
other, had now separated and sat in distinct houses, com- 
municating with each other by messengers and committees 
of conference. In a conference of committees from the 
Council and Assembly February 19, 1700, on a bill regu- 
lating the Court of Admiralty, Governor Blake, who pre- 
sided, was insisting upon a certain point when Mr. Trott 
interrupted him with the remark : " With submission to 
your honor, you are too fast ; we are not come to that 
point yet," and without disclaiming an intention to offend, 
declared in reply to such a charge his right to freedom of 
speech, since he recognized Mr. Blake, in this instance, 
only as one of a committee, and not in his character of a 
Proprietor and Governor of the province. The confer- 
ence was dissolved, and Blake refused to meet the com- 
mittee again if Trott should be present. The matter was 
referred to the Assembly, and they resolved " that any 
manager appointed by this house have freedom of speech 
as it is their undoubted right." ^ In this first con- 
troversy, however rude Trott may have been, and negli- 
gent of the courtesy due the Governor, it cannot be 
questioned that the Assembly was right in standing up to 
its representative on a committee of conference. If the 
Governor had condescended to act as one of such a com- 
mittee on the part of the Council, he should not have 
expected to carry there the overawing dignity of his official 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 192. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 371 

character. He was there, as the Assembly correctly held, 
merely as one of his Council, with whom their representa- 
tive had the right freely to discuss the matter in hand 
unembarrassed by the official character of the Governor. 

Another question now also arose between the Governor 
and his Council on the one side and the Assembly on the 
other. Upon the death of Mr. Ely, the Receiver General, 
the Governor and Council claimed the privilege of nomi- 
nating his successor until the pleasure of the Proprietors 
was known. The Assembly, on the other hand, insisted 
that it belonged to them. This occasioned several mes- 
sages between the two houses, and much altercation en- 
sued. The Upper House appointed the man of their 
choice ; the Lower House resolved that the person so 
appointed was no public receiver, and that whoever should 
presume to pay money to him as such, should be deemed 
an infringer of the Assembly and an enemy of the coun- 
try. Trott now made the point that the Governor and 
Council could not be called an Upper House, though they 
thus styled themselves, as they differed in the most essen- 
tial circumstances from the House of Lords in England, 
and persuaded the Assembly to call them "the Proprietors' 
deputies." This question, as to the character of the Gov- 
ernor's Councils in the enactment of laws, thus started, con- 
tinued not only through the Proprietary, but through 
the Royat Government as well, and was the subject of a 
bitter controversy between William Henry Drayton and 
Sir Egerton Leigh, when the Revolution of 1776 put an 
end to the discussion. But in the end, as at the begin- 
ning, it was one more of the name or title of the body 
than one of substance. The Governor and Council, from 
an early period to the end of the Royal Government, sat as 
a separate body, without the consent of which no law 
could be passed. Trott himself had first recognized it as 



372 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sucli wlien, as a nieml)er of a committee of conference, he 
had met a like committee of the Council. His conduct 
to Governor Blake was justifiable, if at all, only on that 
very ground — and on no other. 

But Trott had already given other cause of offence. 
He was not only Attorney General, but was naval officer 
as well, and had incurred Governor Blake's displeasure 
because of his alleged partiality as the prosecuting officer 
of the port, and upon this charge Blake suspended him 
from exercising the function of either office.^ Randolph, 
the King's Collector of Customs, however, who had not 
long before reported the Bahama Islands as under Trott's 
administration a common retreat for pirates, now espouses 
his cause and writes to the Lords Commissioners of 
Trade charging a conspiracy between Governor Blake, 
his brother-in-law Morton, the Judge of Admiralty, and 
Logan and Bellinger, in seizing and condemning vessels, 
and buying them in upon sale at half their value ; and 
declares that Nicholas Trott was turned out of his place 
— though he had the commission of his Majesty's customs 
as well as that of the Proprietors — because he was dili- 
gent and faithful to his trust, and to make room for a 
creature of the Governor.^ 

At this juncture at the close of the year 1700,^ Governor 
Blake died, and Trott had no difficulty in persuading the 
next Assembly to resolve that there were no sufficient rea- 
sons for his suspension and to request his reinstatement, 
which was granted, though with some reluctance by his 
friend, the successor of Blake ; this hesitation was occa- 
sioned, it was charged, by Trott's opposition to too flagrant 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 192. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 215, 216 ; Colonial Becords of No. 
Ca., vol. I, 545. 

3 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 144. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 373 

a scheme of the new Governor to turn to his private advan- 
tage the emoluments of the Indian trade. ^ 

Upon the death of Bhike, Joseph Morton, as the eldest 
Landgrave present, was entitled to the administration 
under the Fundamental Constitutions, and whether these 
Constitutions were or were not binding, a majority of the 
Council then present elected Morton until the pleasure of 
the Proprietors could be known. But James Moore, who 
was one of the body, objected to Morton's election upon the 
ground that he was ineligible, as he held an office under the 
King, i.e. Judge of Admiralty. To this objection it was 
answered by Mr. Morton's friends, " That it did not appear 
by the charter, the Proprietaries can empower any one to try 
persons for acts committed out of their dominions which is 
necessary for a judge." And that as it was necessary that 
some one in the colony should possess the power, it should 
not disqualify Mr. Morton from being Governor as well 
while he was Judge. The objection, however, prevailed. 
Morton was set aside, and Mooi'e was chosen. Morton 
complained to the Proprietors, but their Lordships did not 
interfere in his behalf.'-^ Indeed, they had themselves, the 
year before, expressed surprise that Morton, holding the 
commission as Judge of Admiralty, should have taken 
another, though from the King ; ^ and were probably not 
displeased that he had suffered for it without their own 
action. ,_Morton does not appear ever to have been a favor- 
ite with the Proprietors. They had made him a Land- 
grave and Governor in 1682 for bringing out a number of 
immigrants, but they had been very curt to him in their 
communications, and had soon sent out a stranger to 

1 Hist. Sketches of Ho. Ca. (Rivers), 192. 

2 Oldmixon, British Empire in Am., vol. I, 474; Carroll's Coll., vol. 
II, 418 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 194. 

•5 Public liecords of So. Ca., vol. IV, 100. 



374 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

relieve him. He had before been chosen by the Council 
in an emergency, upon the retirement of Governor West 
in 1685, but had again been promptly relieved by the 
Proprietors, who sent out Colleton instead in 1686. Had 
the Proprietors known that Moore had been endeavoring 
to betray their interests to the King through Randolph, 
they may perhaps have overlooked Morton's taking a 
commission from his Majesty, and have allowed him to 
serve for a while as Governor for a third time. 

Moore is said at this time to have been in great debt and 
pecuniary want, and determined if possible to improve his 
desperate circumstances during his lease of power, which he 
apprehended would be of but short duration. He designed, 
therefore, to make a considerable profit out of the Indian 
trade while he had the opportunity, and for the purpose 
had a bill brought into the Assembly for regulating that 
business, which, had it passed, would have given him a mo- 
nopoly. But Trott, by his astuteness, saw at once through 
the scheme and, for purposes of his own, defeated it. Upon 
this, Moore, finding the Assembly not amenable to his 
designs, dissolved it. 

A new Assembly was called and every exertion was made 
to control its composition. The election took place in 
November, 1701, and the dissenters of Colleton County 
charged that unqualified aliens, i.e. French Protestants, 
strangers, paupers, servants, and even free negroes, were 
allowed to vote. As soon as the Assembly met, peti- 
tions were presented by the defeated candidates praying 
to be heard against tlie validity of the Sheriff's returns. 
The Assembly, most of Avhom were incorruptible, and ap- 
parently not under INIoore's control, promptly resolved 
to enter into an immediate investigation. To prevent this 
they were prorogued from time to time. Being sum- 
moned in April, 1702, the busiest time with planters, they 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 375 

met and adjourned till the 5th of May. This Governor 
Moore angrily imputed to a greater regard to private than 
to the public welfare, and prorogued them till August.^ 

In the intervals reports were circulated that Colonel 
Daniel had instigated Moore to proclaim martial law if 
the Assembly should continue to exhibit a refractory spirit, 
and when the Assembly met recrimination immediately be- 
gan. If the public welfare had required their counsels, 
why had the Governor through pique prorogued them till 
August? Was it that he designed to menace them with 
coercion ? " Oh, how is the sacred law profaned," it was 
said, " when joined with martial ! Have you forgotten 
your honor's own noble endeavor to vindicate our liberties 
when Colleton set up his arbitrary rule ? " ^ 

Before the prorogation of the Assembly, Mr. Trott and 
Mr. Higginton had been appointed a committee to super- 
vise the last set of Constitutions sent out by the Proprietors 
with Colonel Daniel. On the 10th of August, 1702, these 
gentlemen made this incoherent report:^ — 

" That the constitutions of which we are to consider make and set 
up an estate different and distinguished from the Lords Proprietors, 
and the Common's House without whose consent no law shall or may 
be enacted, which is called in the said constitutions the upper house, 
consisting of the Landgraves and Casiques who being created by their 
Lordships' second letters patents are also a middle state between the 
Lords and the Commons; which constitution we cannot find that it 
anywayes contradicts the said Charter. 

" We find that the 22d article in the said Constitutions manifestly in- 
terferes with our Jury acts now in force ; Tliat all other articles in the 
constitutions are as neare and agreable as may be to the said charter 
or at least no wayes repugnant to it." 

In this inconsistent and contradictory report, Trott 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 196. 

2 Ibid. 

^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 41 ; MSS. Journal. 



376 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

points out that the Constitutions made and set up an 
estate consisting of Landgraves and Caciques, called an 
Upper House, without the consent of the Commons House, 
without which no law could be enacted under the charter; 
and yet reports that the committee cannot find that the 
Constitutions anyways contradict that instrument. That 
one of the articles of the Constitutions interfere with the 
jury acts ; but all other articles are as near and agreeable 
to the chartei' as may be, or at least not repugnant to it. 
What is the meaning of this? The implication is that if 
the Constitutions are inconsistent with the jury act, the 
Constitutions must give way ; and yet, though contradict- 
ing the charter in setting up a third estate without the 
consent of the Commons, they are not repugnant to it. 

This was his formal report ; but the dissenters of Colle- 
ton, in an address, complained to the Proprietors that when 
the House came to consider the Constitutions, " they were 
opposed by Mr. Trott & Mr. Howes and others, the said 
Governor's creatures & several reflectory words used by 
the said Trott ^ Hoives concerning them, exposing the 
constitutions as ridiculous and void in themselves ; thereby 
endeavoring (notwithstanding Your Lordship's care of us) 
to keep the people in an unsettled condition, that from 
time to time they might the more easily be imposed on by 
them." 1 

It is as difficult to suppress a smile upon reading the 
address of the dissenters of Colleton on the one hand, as 
upon reading the sophistical report of Trott on the other. 
Trott's insincerity was equalled by that of the address. 
Could the Proprietors really believe that the dissenters 
were now in earnest in desiring the imposition of the 
Fundamental Constitutions, which they had so persistently 

1 "Address of Members of Colleton Co.," Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), Appendix, 457, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 877 

resisted, and which Constitutions, while professing religious 
freedom, prescribed that the General Assembly should 
take care of the building of churches and the public 
maintenance of divines of the Church of England, " which 
being the only true and orthodox, and the national religion 
of all the King's dominion, is also of Carolina," etc. 

The proceedings of the House upon the reports are 
scarcely less contradictory than the report itself. The 
day after it had been presented, the House entered into a 
debate upon it, and ordered the Constitutions themselves 
to be read. Then the question was raised as to the effect 
of the deaths of the Proprietors who had signed them. 
" The question is put whether the house is of opinion that 
the constitutions now before us are valid, being enacted 
by us since severall of the proprietors are dead who signed 
the same. Carried in the affirmative." ^ It is not easy to 
understand this entry, as none of the Constitutions had 
ever been enacted by the Assembly ; and but one of the 
Proprietors who signed the last set brought out by Colonel 
Daniel had since died, i.e. the Earl of Bath. It was then 
"ordered that the said constitutions be read again, and de- 
bated paragraph by paragraph to morrow morning." The}^ 
were accordingly so read and debated the next day, Sep- 
tember 1, whereupon the House refused to order them to 
a second reading.^ 

When Sir Nathaniel Johnson was made Governor the 
year after, he was instructed to obtain, if he could, the 
assent of the Assembly to such parts of the Constitutions 
as he should deem advisable. But notliing more was done 
in the matter, and this was practically the last of the 
famous Fundamental Laws proposed by Locke, except the 
occasional appointment of Landgraves or Caciques. 

In the midst of these discussions the doors of the As- 
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 42. ^ jf^id^ 



378 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

sembly were suddenly closed, and when they were opened, 
an act was passed for raising the sum of X2000 for carry- 
ing on an expedition against St. Augustine, "and for 
appointing the number of men and ships to be made use 
of, and the manner and method of going against the said 
place." ^ Our only account of what took place in this 
secret session is that given in a paper from which quota- 
tion has already been made, purporting to be a " Repre- 
sentation and Address " of several members returned for 
Colleton County and other inhabitants of the province, 
"and signed by 150 of the principal inhabitants." The 
paper is an address to the Lords Proprietors, complaining 
of the Governor generally, and especially of their treat- 
ment in a riot which ensued upon the withdrawal of the 
Colleton members from the Assembly. It is loosely and 
crudely drawn, is inaccurate in its statements, and reck- 
less in its imputations of motives. Oldmixon, the author 
of The British Umpire in America^ however, unhesitatingly 
adopts its account, and warmly espouses its cause ; and 
in this he has been followed, more or less, by other histo- 
rians. ^ But, though claiming to be a churchman, Old- 
mixon was a member of the Blake family, as a tutor, and 
was a thoroiigh partisan of the interest of which that 
family was the head. 

Tlie address charges that the expedition was set on foot 
by the Governor and his adherents for no other purpose 
than catching and making slaves of Indians for private 
advantage ; that for this purpose the Governor had be- 
fore granted commissions to Anthony Dodsworth, Robert 
Mackoone, and others to kill, destroy, and capture as many 
Indians as they possibly could, the profit and produce of 

1 Statutes, vol. IT, 180. 

2 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 470 ; He watt's Hist, of So. Ca-i vol. I, 
152 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 199. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 379 

which capture of Indians were to be turned to the Gov- 
ernor's private account. That if any one in the Assembly 
undertook to speak against the expedition, and to show 
how unprepared the colonists were at that time for such 
an attempt, he was reviled and affronted as an enemy 
and traitor to his country.^ 

It is not at all improbable that the debate in the Assem- 
bly was conducted with warmth, and caused great excite- 
ment. It may well be imagined that strong and bitter 
words were used against those who were opposing the ex- 
pedition, especially if in their opposition they had been 
bold enough to impute the motives to the Governor, with 
which they afterwards charged him in their address to the 
Proprietors. We remember how bitterly all the colonists 
had resented the suppression by Colleton of the expedition 
in 1686, as contrary to the honor of the English nation. 
They had been prevented and forbidden, at that time, from 
an attempt upon the Spanish post, because it was said Eng- 
land and Spain were nominally at peace. But that reason 
did not now exist. " Queen Anne's War " had actually 
begun, and that alone presented an opportunity of striking 
a blow at that pestilential spot held by mongrel Spaniards, 
as a constant threat to the provinces. 

But the cause of war upon St. Augustine at this time 
was much greater and more immediate than the mere fact 
of hostilities between England and Spain ; and that cause 
was not alluded to in the address of the Colleton party. 
In the report of a committee of the Commons upon Ogle- 
thorpe's expedition, made forty years after the events we 
are now considering, a sketch is given of two previous 
invasions of Carolina from St. Augustine, and in this 
sketch we find the occasion of the present movement 
against that place. From this report it appears that in 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 456. 



380 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

1702, before Queen Anne's declaration of war was known 
in the province, the Spaniards had formed the design 
again to fall upon the Carolina settlement by land at 
the head of 900 Ai)alatchee Indians. The Creek Indians, 
in friendship with the Carolinians, coming to a know- 
ledge of this intended invasion, informed the traders, 
but not before the Spaniards' expedition was on its march. 
The Carolina traders, instead of retreating, however, 
roused the Creeks to resistance and, collecting 500 
men, headed them, and went out to meet the invaders. 
The hostile parties met one evening on the side 
of Flint River, a branch of the Chattahoochee, in 
Georgia. In the morning just before daybreak, at an 
hour when Indians were accustomed to make their attacks, 
the Creeks, stirring up their fires, drew back at a little 
distance, leaving their blankets by the fires in the order 
in which they had slept. As was expected, the Spaniards 
and Apalatcheans, coming to the attack, ran in and fired 
upon the blankets, whereupon the Creeks, rushing forth 
from their retreat, fell on them, killed, and took the greater 
part, entirely routing them.^ It was upon this provoca- 
tion and renewed invasion by the Spaniards, that it Avas 
deemed best to take the offensive and to endeavor, if 
possible, to wipe out this constant source of menace and 
danger to the province. 

Rivers suggests that it is reasonable to suppose that 
there was some connection between this affair and the 
charge against the Governor of granting to irresponsible 
persons the power to set upon Indians who were not in 
open hostility against the colonists.^ 

Whatever opposition to the expedition was made in the 
Assembly was soon overcome, and X2000 were voted to 

1 Carroirs Coll., vol. IT, 348. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 199, 200. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 381 

cany it out. It was agreed to raise 600 provincial militia, 
an equal number of Indians, and ten vessels for the ex- 
pedition. Port Royal was the place of rendezvous, and 
thence in September, 1702, the Governor at the head of 
his little army embarked. 

In the plan of operation it had been agreed that Colonel 
Daniel, with a detached party, should go by the inland 
passage and make a descent upon the town from the land, 
while the Governor should proceed by sea and block up 
the harbor. The precautions to keep the matter secret had 
been unavailing. The inhabitants of St. Augustine heard 
of it and sent at once to Havana for reinforcements. 
Retreating to their castle with their most valuable effects, 
and provisions for four months, they abandoned the town 
to the Carolinians. Colonel Daniel, proceeding by land 
to the St. John's River, going down that river in small 
boats and landing on the east bank in the rear of St. 
Augustine, took the villages of St. John's and St. Mary's, 
and arrived first at the point of attack. He had pillaged 
the town before the fleet arrived. The Governor now 
entered the harbor, landed his forces, made the church his 
quarters, and laid siege to the castle, which was sur- 
rounded by a deep moat ; but, unfortunately, he was unpro- 
vided with suitable artillery for a siege. He held the 
town for a month and dispatched a sloop to Jamaica for 
mortars and bombs ; but the commander of the vessel, 
either from fear or treachery, instead of going thither, 
came to Carolina. Remaining here for some time until 
shamed by the offer of others to go instead, he reluctantl}^ 
proceeded again on his mission. The Governor all the 
while lay before the castle awaiting the return of the 
sloop with the guns ; hearing nothing of it. Colonel Daniel, 
who was the life of the expedition, set sail himself for 
Jamaica. 



382 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Having with great expedition procured a supply of 
bombs, he sailed again for St. Augustine ; but in the mean- 
time, during his absence, two ships had appeared in the 
offing, which Governor Moore took to be men-of-war, and 
incontinently raised the siege, abandoned liis ships with 
all the stores, ammunition, and provisions to the enemy, 
while he retreated to Carolina by land. The two men-of- 
war that appeared to the Governor so formidable proved to 
be two small frigates, one of twenty-two and the other of 
sixteen guns. Colonel Daniel, thus abandoned on his re- 
turn from Jamaica, with difficulty escaped capture. He 
was chased, but got away. The Carolinians lost but two 
men ; but the expedition entailed a heavy expense upon the 
colony. It incurred a debt of X6000,i probably equal to 
1120,000 in present currency.^ 

The Assembly had been under prorogation during the 
Governor's absence ; and when he returned it met, January, 
1703. The courage and conduct of Colonel Daniel were 
highly praised, but the Governor was thanked reluctantly, 
and not without dissent, especially from Mr. Ash. 

Though greatly disappointed at the result of the expe- 
dition, the invasion of Florida was not abandoned. A 
majority of the Assembly began at once to enter upon a 
more extensive plan for the reduction not only of St. 
Augustine, but of Pensacola and other Spanish strongholds 
as well. A brigantine was offered to Colonel Daniel to 
cruise on the coast of Florida. The Assembly also offered 
to supply with provisions a frigate if one should be sent 
from England to cruise on their coast. Colonel Daniel 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 476-478 ; Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 422- 
424 ; Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 152-155; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 199-201, Appendix, 456. 

2 This is estimating the value of the pound sterling as before ; but this 
value was fluctuating, and the value of money gradually lessening. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 383 

having declined the command of the brigantine, it was 
offered to Captain William Rhett. But before another 
invasion was undertaken, it was considered best to pay for 
the last, against which many citizens had just claims. 
After considerable delay, caused by the investigation of 
the committees, two bills were introduced, one laying an 
imposition on skins, furs, liquors, and other goods and mer- 
chandise imported into and exported out of the province, 
for raising a fund towards defraying the general charges 
and expenses of the province and paying the debts due 
for the expedition against St. Augustine, and the other for 
raising X4000 in addition to the X2000 which it had at first 
been estimated would cover the expenses of the expedition. 
This sum was to be raised by a direct tax upon real and 
personal estates, and bills of credit were to be issued. 
The first of these measures, which was adopted on the 
6th of May, 1703, is remarkable for a provision imposing 
a duty of twenty shillings a head on every negro slave 
(children under eight years old excepted) imported from 
the West Indies, or any other place but Africa, and sold 
in the province ; and ten shillings per head on all such 
imported from Africa.^ This was the first tax imposed 
upon the importation of negroes. The bill to raise the 
additional sum of <£4000 created great astonishment and 
gave opportunity to the disaffected for a renewal of their 
oppositimi. To fill up the measure of their discontent, a 
bill twice passed by the House for regulating elections 
being sent to the Governor and Council for concurrence 
was summarily rejected, without, as usual, inviting a con- 
ference. Upon this, several — Oldmixon says fifteen out 
of thirty members who constituted the House — entered 
their protest under the instructions of those who sent them, 
they said, and left the House. But this they appear to 

i Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 201. 



384 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

have done more by way of threat than with an intention 
of permanent withdrawal ; for the very next day, without 
any invitation to return, they all came back and offered 
to resume their seats if the rest of the Assembly would 
join them in the assertion of their rights. The remaining 
members of the Assembly, however, had taken them at 
their word, and instead of welcoming them back, the pro- 
testing members complained that they were abused, reviled, 
and treated with the most scandalous reflections, very un- 
becoming, they observe, of an Assembly. The House, how- 
ever, could not make a quorum without them, and so were 
obliged to adjourn. 

The Colleton members had, by their own showing, so 
far behaved in a weak, undignified, and unmanly manner. 
They had begun by making the most injurious charges 
against the honesty of the Governor and Council, imput- 
ing the most scandalous motives, holding back when the 
welfare and safety of the province demanded the most 
earnest support of the expedition against St. Augustine, 
resisting the enfranchisement of the French while making 
new demands for their own privileges ; then because they 
could not have their own way, they had withdrawn from 
the house, and immediately changing their minds had 
come back, begging to be received again. It is almost piti- 
ful to read their whining complaint to the Lords Proprie- 
tors. They wrote : — 

" And we further represent to your Lordships that a day or two 
after such abuse was given to tliem in tlie house several of the said 
members viz : the said John A .s/i — Landgrave Thomas Smith ^ and others 

1 Thomas Smith, the second son of Thomas Smith, the Landgrave, who 
died in 1692. This Thomas Smith, Mrs. Poyas says, was born in England 
in 1670, and was brought over when a few months old. He was called the 
"little Englishman." The Olden Time of Carolina, 18. But this, we 
have been informed, is a mistake. He was born in Madagascar, where 
his father lived before he came to South Carolina. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 385 

were assaulted & set upon in the open street without any provocation 
or affront by them given or offered. The said Thomas Smith was set 
upon by Lieut Col : George Dearshy who with his drawn sword and 
the point held at the said Smiths belly swore he would kill him, and 
if he had not been prevented would have done the said Smith some 
considerable mischief to the endangering of his life. The said John 
Ash walking along the Street was assaulted by a rude di'unken un- 
governable rabble headed encouraged & abbetted by the said Dearshy 
Thomas Dalton Nicholas Nary and other j)ersons Inhabitants who set 
upon the said Ash and used him villanously & barbarously; and that 
evening when he the said ^4^^^ was retired into a friends chamber for 
security the same armed multitude came to the House where the 
said Ash was & demanded him down assuring him at the same time 
that they would do him no hurt, but only wanted to discourse with 
him; upon which assurance he came down to them who notwith- 
stand'g being encouraged and assisted by Captain Rhett & others drew 
him on board his the said Rhetts ship revilling him & threatening 
him as they dragged him along; and having gotten him on board the 
said Rhetts ship they sometimes told him they would carry him to 
Jamaica at other times they threatened to hang him or leave him on 
some remote Island." 

They complained that the Governor was cognizant of 
the riot, treated many persons engaged in it to drink, and 
gave them great encouragement, telling them " that the 
protesting members would bring the people on their heads 
for neglecting to pay the country's debts ; which if it should 
happen he knew not who could blame them," etc. ; that 
while the riot continued, which it did for four or five days. 
Landgrave Edmund Bellinger, Avho was a Justice of tlie 
Peace, was the only official who attempted to do his duty ; 
and that for so doing Captain Rhett had beat him overtlie 
head with his cane ; that during the riot a woman, the wife 
of a butcher, was thrown down, miscarried and brought forth 
a dead child ; that when Ash, Smith, Byres, and Boone com- 
plained to the Governor, they received no other satisfaction 
than that " it was a business for a Justice of the Peace.'' ^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 459. 
2c 



386 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

And so undoubtedly it was. There was, no doubt, a 
riot caused by the indignation of the people against the 
protesting members, who, to carry an election law they 
desired for the exclusion of the French, to prevent the 
payment of the claims arising from the expedition to St. 
Augustine, and to prevent the sending another expedition 
to destroy that stronghold of the inveterate enemy of the 
community, had broken the quorum of the House. For 
their own political ends, they had thwarted the purposes of 
the people in a matter vitally affecting their safety. And 
yet in the terrible riot that occurred, nobody had been seri- 
ously hurt, unless it was the woman who had been acci- 
dentally thrown down in opening a door. 

To sum up the casualties. Landgrave Smith had had 
a sword pointed at him, Landgrave Bellinger had re- 
ceived a whack across his head, and Thomas Ash had 
been tussled into a boat and frightened into believing 
that he was to be sent to Jamaica. 

There was no court held in Charles Town after the riot, 
until Moore was superseded and transferred to his new 
office, that of Attorney General ; and it was scarcely to 
be expected that under the circumstances he would have 
been vigorous in the prosecution of the rioters. Bellinger 
did, nevertheless, lay a record of the events before the 
grand jury, but no presentment was made. Neither the 
new Governor, the Council, nor the courts took any steps 
in the matter. Nor did the aggrieved party meet with 
support or sympathy when they sent Mr. Ash, as their 
agent, to the Proprietors in England with the memorial 
from which the above-mentioned events have been mostly 
taken. 



CHAPTER XVII 

1701-1706 

John, Earl of Bath, the fourth Palatine, died August 
21, 1701. But so negligent were the Proprietors of the 
affairs of the colony that no meeting was held for five 
months after his death. Then, on January 10, 1701-1702, 
John Lord Granville succeeded the Earl his father, as 
the fifth Palatine of Carolina.^ The other proprietorships 
were represented by William Lord Craven ; the Hon. 
Maurice Ashley, son of the second Earl of Shaftesbury; 
that of the minor Lord Carteret by Lord Granville. The 
troublesome share of Sir William Berkeley, held by Mr. 
Thornburgh, substituted trustee in the place of Thomas 
Amy, who was now dead, was in 1705 sold to John Arch- 
dale, who thus appears to have recognized the right of 
the four Proprietors under their purchase from Ludwell 
and his wife, notwithstanding his own previous purchase 
from that lady. The share of the Earl of Clarendon, then 
of Sothell, which the Proprietors had given to Thomas 
Amy, he had settled upon Nicholas Trott, Esq., of Lon- 
don, who had married his daughter,^ but the other Pro- 
prietors never recognized Trott's proprietorship, nor 
admitted him to its possession or profits. The Colleton 
share was represented by the second Sir John Colleton, 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 150. 

^ Danson v. Trott., et al., M Browii's Pari. Beports, 449. This 
Nicholas Trott was a cousin of the Nicholas Trott in Carolina. lie was 
the same who joined with John Trott in giving a power of attorney to 
collect from William Rhett their share of a mercantile adventure. 

387 



388 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lately become of age. That formerly of Lord Berkeley was 
now owned by the minor son of Landgrave Joseph Blake. 

On March 11, 1701, the Privy Council announced to 
the Proprietors of Carolina the death of King William 
and ordered the proclamation of Queen Anne. This order, 
on March 21, the Proprietors enclose to the Governor and 
Council in Carolina.^ On May 8, 1702, the Commissioners 
of Trade formally notify the Proprietors of the war with 
France and Spain. In the meanwhile the Board of 
Trade, urged on by Randolph, were advising the Royal 
authorities to reassume the government of the colonies 
and unite them under one administration. " An act for 
remitting to the crown the government of several colonies 
and plantations in America " was drawn, and only failed 
of passage in Parliament, it was said, by reason of the 
shortness of time and multiplicity of other business.^ 

In 1699 the Proprietors had been summoned to. White- 
hall and asked how it was that his Majesty's approbation 
had not been obtained for appointment of Governor Blake 
as required by the act of Parliament for preventing frauds, 
etc. Mr. Thornburgh, answering for them, had stated 
that the then Governor (Blake) was not so by virtue of 
any commissiou from the Proprietors, but by virtue of the 
Fundamental Constitutions as being a Proprietor himself ; 
but that the Lords Proprietors contemplated deputing one 
before loiig.^ This was not strictly true. Blake, as we 
have seen, had been appointed by Archdale under a power 
from their board, an appointment Avhicli had been ap- 
proved by them.^ Three years had elapsed and no ap- 
pointment had been made. They now at last determined 
to appoint Sir Nathaniel Johnson. Hewatt states that the 
Proprietors could not at first obtain Queen Anne's appro- 

1 Cull. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 161. 3 /^^^.^ 510. 

2 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, 535, 540, 554. * See ante, pp. 287-288. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAllY GOVERNMENT 389 

bation of Sir Nathaniel because it was suspected that he 
was not a friend, to the Revolution, and that her approval 
could only be obtained on the condition of his giving 
security for the observance of the laws of trade and navi- 
gation, and to obey such instructions as should be sent 
him from time to time by her Majesty; which security the 
Commissioners of Trade and Plantations were ordered to 
take care sliould be sufficient.^ The historian does not 
give his autliority for the statement. It is scarcely proba- 
ble that Queen Anne and her Tory administration, with 
Lord Godolphin at its head, would have objected to any one 
because he had refused to abandon the cause of the Stuarts. 
The requirement of security was a general regulation im- 
posed at the instance of the Board of Trade in 1697, and 
which it appears the board was zealously enforcing. Sir 
Nathaniel was too much in accord with the political and 
religious views of the now dominant party in England to 
fear refusal of his confirmation as Governor of Carolina. 

On the 18th of June, 1702, the Lords Proprietors 
issued their commission to Sir Nathaniel Johnson as Gov- 
ernor both of South and North Carolina ; and with his 
commission they sent their instructions of the same date. 
He was to follow such rules as had been given to former 
Governors in the Fundamental Constitutions and Tempo- 
rary Laws, and to be guided by them as far as in his 
judgment he might think fit and expedient. He was re- 
quired, with the advice and assistance of his Council, 
carefully to review the Constitutions and to lay before the 
Assembly, for their concurrence and assent, such of them 
as he should think necessary to the better establishment 
of government and calculated for the good of the people. 
He was to use his endeavors to dispose of their lands, but 
to take nothing less than .£20 for 1000 acres and in all 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 162. 



390 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

future grants to provide that the lands should escheat to 
the Pi'oprietors unless a settlement was made on them 
within the space of four years. He was to take special care 
that the Indians were not abused or insulted, and to study 
the best methods of civilizing them and making a firm 
friendship with them in order to protect the colony against 
the Spaniards. He was to transmit to England exact 
copies of all laws passed, and of all annual rents paid. 
An act had been passed in 1701 by the Assembly in South 
Carolina for regulating the proceedings of the Court of 
Admiralty in the province. The Proprietors sent to Gov- 
ernor Johnson an opinion of counsel furnished them by 
the Board of Trade, that its provisions were not in accord- 
ance with the practice of the High Court of Admiralty 
in England, and they instructed Sir Nathaniel to have 
the same amended as necessary.^ 

On the 28th of July Mr. Robert Johnson, the Governor's 
son, with Mr. Hutcheson, the agent of the Proprietors, 
attended at Whitehall and acquainting the board that he 
was in possession of an estate at Keebles worth in the 
County of Durham with .£200 per annum, which Sir 
Nathaniel, his father, who was tenant for life, had made 
over to him, he was accepted as one of his father's sure- 
ties. Mr. Thomas Cary, Archdale's son-in-law, a Carolina 
merchant, was taken for the other.^ 

Thouofh Sir Nathaniel Johnson's commission was dated 
in June, 1702, it did not arrive in Carolina until some time 
in 1703. With his commission as Governor came also a 
commission for Nicholas Trott as Chief Justice, for James 
Moore, the Governor, as Attorney General, and for Job 
Howes as Surveyor General. When Granville had desired 
the Queen's approbation of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the fact 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca.., vol. I, 162 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca.j 
vol. I, 555-557. ^ 75 ^-^.^ 557, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 391 

was known that, while Governor in the West Indies, he 
had refused to take the new oaths upon the revolution 
in England which, as we have observed, was probably a 
recommendation of him to Anne, and his experience and 
courage were urged as particularly fitting him for the 
critical position of the Governor of a frontier during the 
war against France and Spain. ^ 

With the new administration a new Assembly was 
elected, and the Colleton members charged that in this 
election that of the members to serve from Berkeley was 
managed with greater injustice to the freemen of the 
province even than the former. " For at this last elec- 
tion," they said, '' Jews strangers, sailors servants, ne- 
groes and almost every FrencJinvdii in Craven and Berkeley 
counties came down to elect and their votes were taken 
the persons by them voted for were returned by the 
Sheriff," etc.^ It was the voting of the Frenchmen to 
which the Colleton dissenters were so opposed. This was 
the real ground and cause of their complaint, and the 
reason is obvious. There was no bitterness between the 
Huguenots and the High Churchmen. The Huguenots 
were not dissenters from the Church of England as were 
the Congregationalists under the lead of' Morton and 
Boone, or as the Baptists under Screven. They were 
Protestants against the Church of Rome, just as were the 
churchmen of England. Though, in strict matter of faith, 
the Huguenot was a Calvinist, he had no disposition to 
quarrel with the establishment of the Church of England. 
On the contrary, he was most kindly disposed to that 
body, though not fully agreeing with all its tenets. When 
first driven from France, Canterbury offered an asylum to 
these persecuted Protestants, and Archbishop Parker, with 
the consent of Queen Elizabeth, granted the exiles the use 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 206. ^Ibicl, Appendix, 459, 



392 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the under croft or crypt of the cathedral where " the 
gentle and profitable strangers," as the archbishop styled 
them, not only celebrated their worship, but set up their 
looms and carried on their several trades.^ The Hugue- 
nots had been protected by Cromwell, and Charles II had 
assisted at his own expense in the transportation of some 
of them to this country. They did not object to a lit- 
urgy. They themselves had been accustomed to one. It 
was because these people would not join the dissenters to 
control the colony that their indignation was so aroused 
because aliens were allowed to vote. 

The new Assembly in April, 1703, thanked their Lord- 
ships the Proprietors for the appointment of Governor 
Johnson, and requested, as their own resources were ex- 
hausted by the late expedition, that the Queen would send 
them warlike stores and forces and a frigate, for they 
said : " Though we are immediately under your Lordships' 
government, yet we are her subjects, and we hope not only 
to defend ourselves, but even to take St. Augustine." 

Governor Johnson devoted liimself immediately to the 
fortification of the town and preparation for the defence of 
the province. With limited resources he wisely stayed at 
home and exerted himself to render the capital of his prov- 
ince as defendable as possible, but Moore, restless, ener- 
getic, and ambitious, and burning to redeem his diminished 
reputation, persuaded Sir Nathaniel to alloAv him to make 
another invasion of the territory of the Apalachian, north- 
west of St. Augustine, which supplied that place with pro- 
visions and in which there were many small Spanish forts 
and Roman Catholic chapels. Moore set forth in Decem- 
ber, 1703, at the head of 50 Carolina volunteers and 1000 

1 The Huguenots (Samuel Smiles), 1868, 123; "Historical Sketch of 
South Carolina," Preface to Cyclo. of Eminent Men of the Carolinas 
(Edward McCrady). 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 393 

Indians. The first town which he reached was one 
known as Ayaville, having a tolerably complete fortifica- 
tion with its usual appendage, a chapel. The Carolinians 
assaulted the fort, but were repulsed. 

Balls and arrows greeted Moore's approach, from which 
his men first took refuge behind a mud-walled house, then, 
forming to the assault, they rushed forward and attempted 
to break down the chapel doors, but were beaten back 
with the loss of two men, — Francis Plowden and Thomas 
Dale. Two hours after they succeeded, with the aid of 
the Indians, in setting fire to the chapel. They captured 
only one white man, a friar, and about 50 Indians and 
over 100 women and children, and killed in the two as- 
saults 25 men. The next morning 23 Spaniards, with 
400 Indian allies, renewed battle with the Carolinians. 
The Carolinians were again victorious ; the Spanish 
leader and eight of his men were taken prisoners, and five 
or six killed, with about 200 Indians. On the part of the 
Carolinians, Captain John Bellinger was killed fighting 
bravely at the head of his men. On the same day Captain 
Fox died of his wounds received at the assault at Ayaville. 
Five fortified towns now surrendered unconditionally. 

The Cacique of Ibitachtka, being strongly posted, was 
treated with and compounded for safety with " his church 
plate and ten horses laden with provisions." " I am will- 
ing to bring away with me," says Colonel Moore, " free, 
as many of the Indians as I can, this being the address of 
the commons to your honor to order it so. This will make 
my men's part of plunder (which otherwise might have 
been XlOO to a man) but small." He returned in March 
with 1300 free A[)<dachians and 100 slaves. By the 
devastation committed by Moore's own men and the depre- 
dations of his numerous allies, the country of the enemy 
was completely subdued. He received the thanks of the 



394 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Proprietors, " wiped off the ignominy of his failure at 
St. Augustine, and increased his means by the sale or 
bondage of Indian captives."^ 

The three ensuing years are among the most interesting 
in the history of the province. It was during these that, 
following the course of events in England, the attempt 
was made under the direction of Granville to exclude 
dissenters from participation in the government of the 
colony. But this important matter must be reserved for 
a succeeding chapter. For the present we pass over these 
years, to follow the events of the war between Eng- 
land on the one hand, and France and Spain on the other, 
which took place in Carolina. 

Carolina, forming on the south and west the frontier 
of the English settlements, was open to invasion from 
Havana, as well as from St. Augustine. Sir Nathaniel 
Johnson, having long expected an attack from the French 
and Spaniards, had exerted himself to put the town and 
colony in the best state of defence. His first measure was 
one which was to be the basis of all future legislation in 
regard to the domestic police of the province and State, 
until the abolition of slavery. From the preamble of the 
act, which was passed in ITO-l:,^ we learn that its purpose 
was to provide against insurrections of the negro slaves 
upon occasions of invasion of the province Avhich would 
draw the men of the colony to the coast. It provided for 
the draft of ten men from every militia company properly 
mounted, armed, and accoutred under a captain or other 
officer, whose duty it was to muster his men as a patrol 
upon all occasions of alarm, and at other times, as often as 
he or the General should think fit, and with them to ride 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 208, 200; Moore's account, Car- 
rolPs Coll., vol. II, 574. Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 157. 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 254. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 395 

from plantation to plantation, and to take up all slaves 
which they should meet without their masters' plantations, 
which had not a permit or ticket from their masters, and to 
punish them as provided by the act for the better ordering 
of slaves. Upon this beginning was based the patrol laws 
which, modified from time to time, formed the military 
police system of which we have spoken in the introduc- 
tory chapter. In the meanwhile the Governor pressed 
forward the work upon the fortifications and preparations 
for defence against the threatened invasion. In a letter 
of the Grand Council to the Queen's officers in England, 
written in 1708, the defences of the town erected at this 
time are thus described : — 

" Charles Town the chief port in Carolina by the direc- 
tion and dilligence of our present governor, Sir Nathaniel 
Johnson, is surrounded with a regular fortification, con- 
sisting of bastions, flankers and half moons ditched and 
palisaded and mounted with 83 guns. Also at the en- 
trance of the harbor in a place called Windmill Point 
(within a carbine shot of which all vessels must pass by) is 
now building and almost finished a triangular fort and 
platform of capacity to mount 30 guns which when finished 
will be the key and bulwark of this province but wanting 
some large heavy guns both for the fortification and 
about Charles Town and the said fort and platform to- 
gether with a suitable store of shot." ^ 

Windmill Point is that ever since known as Fort John- 
son.2 Trenches were cast up on White Point, now the 
Charleston Battery, and other places where thought neces- 
sary. A guard was stationed on Sullivan's Island, which 

1 MSS. Letter to Board of Trade, quoted by Rivers, Hist. Sketches 
of So. Ca., 207. 

2 The point from which the first gun in the late war between the 
States was fired. 



396 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

commanded a view of the ocean, with orders to kindle a 
number of fires opposite to the town equal to the number 
of ships that might appear on the coast.^ 

Yellow fever, which had first visited Charles Town in 
1699, again made its appearance in 1706, and was raging 
in the town when news came that an expedition was being 
organized at Havana for the invasion of the place. 

Governor Johnson had taken the precaution of having 
a privateer fitted out for cruising on the coast, under the 
command of Captain Stool, who was to keep a lookout, 
and was particularly charged to intercept supplies which 
were regularly sent to St. Augustine from Havana. Cap- 
tain Stool had been out a few days when, on Saturday, the 
24th of August, he returned, bringing the report that he 
had engaged a French sloop off the bar of St. Augustine, 
but upon seeing four other ships advancing to her assist- 
ance, he thought proper to make all the sail he could for 
Charles Town and had narrowly escaped falling into the 
enemy's hands. Scarcely had he made this report when five 
separate smokes appeared on Sullivan's Island as a signal to 
the town that that number of ships was observed on the coast. 

This invasion had been concerted at Havana. Mon- 
sieur Le Feboure, a captain of a French frigate, with 
four armed sloops had set sail for Charles Town, with 
directions to touch at St. Augustine and to carry from 
thence such a force as he judged adequate to the enter- 
prise. Upon his arrival at St. Augustine he had learned 
of the epidemic which raged at Charles Town, and that 
it had swept away a vast number of the inhabitants. This, 
instead of intimidating and deterring him from his pur- 
pose, determined him to proceed Avith greater expedition, 
hoping to find the town in a weak and defenceless condi- 
tion, as the country militia, he supposed, would be afraid 
1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ga., vol. I, 180. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 397 

to come to its support because of the fatal infection. 
Taking on board a considerable number of men at St. 
Augustine, he made sail for Carolina. 

Sir Nathaniel Johnson at the time was at his planta- 
tion Silk-Hope, several miles from town, but Lieutenant 
Colonel Rhett, commanding officer of the militia, who was 
on the spot, immediately ordered the drums to beat and 
all of the inhabitants to be put under arms. A mes- 
senger was dispatched with the news to the Governor and 
orders to all the captains of militia in the country to fire 
alarm guns, raise their companies, and march to the assist- 
ance of the town. 

In the evening the enemy's fleet came to the bar ; but 
as the passage was intricate, they did not think it prudent 
to venture over it in the darkness of the night. Early 
Sunday morning, the 25th, watchmen on Sullivan's Island 
observed them a little to the southward of the bar manning^ 
their galley and boats as if they intended to land on 
James Island. But they came to anchor and spent all 
that day in sounding the .south bar. This delay was of 
great consequence to the Carolinians, as it afforded time 
to collect the militia in the country. 

Sir Nathaniel Johnson came in on Sunday, and found 
the inhabitants in great consternation, but being a man of 
established courage and skill in war, his presence inspired 
the people with confidence and resolution. To avoid ex- 
posing the country troops to the contagion of the town, he 
established his headquarters about half a mile from it. 
Martial law was proclaimed. In the evening Major George 
Broughton, with two companies, and the gentlemen of 
Colonel Logan's troop arrived and kept watch during the 
night. Early on Tuesday morning, the 27th, Captains 
Johnson, Linche, and Hearne, and Drake from James Island 
were posted with their companies in the immediate neigh- 



B9B HISTORY OF SOUTH cAnoLiisrA 

borhood of the town. The same morning the enemy, with 
four ships and a galley and a number of boats for landing 
their men, crossed the south bar and stood for the town 
with fair wind and tide ; but when they came in view of 
its fortification, where the Governor with his forces stood 
ready to receive them, they suddenly bore up and came to 
anchor under Sullivan's Island. A sloop, which had been 
sent over to Wando River to bring Captain Fenwicke and 
his company, succeeded in doing so, notwithstanding an 
attempt of the enemy's galley to intercept them. 

The next morning, Wednesday, the 28th, Captains Long- 
bois from Santee and Seabrook from the islands, disregard- 
ing the pestilence, marched their men into the town. As 
the enemy hesitated, a council of war was lield, and Gov- 
ernor Johnson determined to assume the offensive, and to 
go out and attack them. Three ships, a brigantine, two 
sloops, and a fireship, all the harbor afforded, were manned 
and equipped, and Colonel Rhett, who fortunately was a 
sailor, was commissioned as Vice Admiral, hoisted his flag, 
and was ready for action. 

Observing these preparations for resistance, the enemy, 
who had so boldly crossed the bar, resorted to parley. 
They sent up a flag of truce to the Governor, summoning 
him to surrender. The flag was received by Captain 
Evans, the commander of Granville's Bastion, and the 
messenger upon landing was at once blindfolded, and held 
until Governor Johnson was ready to receive him. When 
taken to his presence, the messenger informed the Gov- 
ernor that he was sent to demand, in the name of the 
French King, the surrender of the town and country, 
and the inhabitants as prisoners of war, and that only one 
hour was granted for his decision. The Governor promptly 
and emphatically replied " that it needed not a quarter of 
an hour or a minute's time to give an answer to that de- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 399 

mand, for he might see he was not in such a condition as 
to be obliged to surrender the town ; but that he kept the 
same and would defend it in the name and by the authority 
of the great Queen of .England and that he valued not any 
force he had ; and bid him go about his business." 

Governor Johnson was given but an hour to reply ; but 
when the reply was so promptly made, the demand was 
not followed up by the French commander at the expi- 
ration of the hour or even at the end of the day, nor 
was any general attack made. The day following, Thurs- 
day, the 29th, a party of the enemy went ashore on James 
Island and burnt the houses on a plantation by the river 
side. Another party, consisting of 160 men, on Friday 
morning, the 30th, landed on the opposite side of the har- 
bor, and burnt two vessels in Dearsby's, now Shem's, Creek, 
and set fire to his storehouse. Captain Drake and his 
company, with a small party of Indians, was sent to James 
Island, to meet the enemy there, while Captain Fenwicke 
and Cantey crossed the Cooper, and marched against the 
party which had landed in Wan do Neck. The latter party 
came up with the enemy before the break of day and, find- 
ing them unguarded with their fires burning, surprised 
them. A brisk engagement ensued, in which about a 
dozen of the invaders were killed and thirty-three taken 
prisoners. Some perished in attempting to escape by 
swimming. On the side of the Carolinians there was but 
one killed. Sir Nathaniel now assumed the aggressive. 
Colonel Rhett, with a fleet of six small vessels, on Satur- 
day morning, the 31st, sailed out and proceeded down the 
river to where the enemy's ship lay at anchor. In haste 
and confusion they weighed and stood for sea. Threaten- 
ing weather prevented a pursuit. Nothing more was 
heard of the enemy ; but to be assured of their departure, 
on Sunday, the 1st of September, the Governor ordered 



400 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Captain Watson of the Sea Flower to search and report. 
The captain returned without seeing the enemy, but ob- 
serving some men on shore whom they had left behind, 
he took them on board and brought them to town. 

The country companies had been discharged and martial 
law had ceased, when information was now brought that 
a ship had anchored in Sewee Bay and landed its crew. 
Captain Fenwicke was at once, on Monday, the 2d of Sep- 
tember sent by land against this new movement ; while 
Colonel Rhett, Captain Evans, and a number of gentlemen 
as volunteers, went by sea in a Bermudian sloop with the 
privateer which had brought the information of the inva- 
sion. This ship at Sewee was one of the French fleet 
under Captain Pacquereau, having 200 men on board, and 
had been intended as an important part in the invasion. 
Captain Pacquereau does not seem to have been aware of 
the repulse of his comrades. A party of his men crossed 
the main from Sewee Bay to Hobcaw through Christ 
Church parish ; there Captain Fenwicke attacked them, 
killed fourteen and took fifty prisoners, while the same day 
Colonel Rhett entered Sewee Bay and the ship imme- 
diately surrendered with ninety men aboard. Mr. John 
Barnwell, a volunteer, was dispatched by Colonel Rhett 
with news of the capture, as the contrary winds prevented 
the immediate return of the little victorious fleet with 
their prize and many captives. There were now 230 
French and Spanish prisoners in Charles Town. It is not 
known how many, if any, of them died of yellow fever.^ 

The Governor thanked the citizen soldiery who had 

1 This account is taken from Hewatt and Rivers. Ramsay follows 
verbatim that of Hewatt. Rivers's account is based upon the more reli- 
able authority of a report written in Charles Town September 13, 1706, 
published in the Boston Neios Letter^ and republished in the Carolina 
Gazette^ June 2, 1766, which paper is to be found in the files in the 
Charleston Library. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMEISIT 401 

responded so promptly to his call, under circumstances so 
unpropitious, for their valor and for their humanity, espe- 
cially at a time when such violent estrangements existed 
between political parties. On the other liand, the Governor 
himself received from the Proprietors a substantial token 
of their approbation in a tract of land granted in terms 
most flattering and honorable. And well they might, for 
the funds for necessary expenses were raised by Governor 
Johnson on his individual responsibility.^ 

Thus ended, says Rivers, the first attempt to take the 
city of Charlestown by a naval force, which failed, not 
through the strength of its fortifications nor the multitude 
of its defenders, but through the courage and activity of 
its citizens. Since Rivers wrote, another and more signally 
glorious defence of the city has been made, whereupon a 
recent English author has written : " Three times has 
Charlestown been attacked from the sea. Twice in the last 
century, and once in the present, have the ever-growing 
resources of naval warfare been brought to bear upon her 
walls. Dalgren's monitors were as powerless against her 
mighty natural defences as the French privateers or as 
Parker's men-of-war, and the stronghold of slavery only 
sank in the common downfall of that cause of which she 
was the parent and leader. But of the three defences of 
Charlestown all marked by conspicuous resolution on the 
part of the garrison, the first is the only one with which 
Englishmen can well feel sympathy. In each of the latter 
sieges the assailants and defenders were of the same race 
and speech. The settlers who held Charlestown ag.ainst 
the allied forces of France and Spain were partners in the 
glory of Stanhope and Marlborough, heirs to the glory of 
Drake and Raleigh." ^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 214, note. 

2 Doyle's English Colonies in Am.^ 368. 
2d 



i 



CHAPTER XVIII 

1704 

Carolina was a part of the British Empire, and a part 
which, though so distant, was drawing more and more 
closely in interest to the mother country. In the early 
days of the colony, the colonists had been too much en- 
gaged in clearing the grounds for their settlements, and 
erecting their cabins in the woods, to take much interest 
in the affairs of the old country. Busy in the first attempt 
at a settlement at Old Town on the Ashley, and their 
minds continually occupied with apprehensions of Indians 
and Spaniards, they had not been much concerned with 
the occasional news which reached them from England of 
the withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence to the 
Roman Catholics, or the Test Act, by which the reception 
of the sacrament, according to the forms of the Church of 
England, and renunciation of the doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation, were made the qualifications for office. Nor after 
their removal to Oyster Point had they felt themselves 
much interested in the Popish plot, or Exclusion Bill, or 
the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, save inasmuch 
as these measures had driven to the province the non- 
conformists under Morton and Axtell, and the French 
Protestants under Petit and Grinard. The death of 
Charles II and the accession of James had not disturbed 
them. Their political thoughts had been chiefly engaged in 
resisting the absurd Fundamental Constitutions of Locke, 

402 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 403 

which the Proprietors were endeavoring to force upon 
them, and in extorting from their Lordships assurance 
of their titles to land, and the tenures under which they 
Avere to be held. But communication with London and 
Bristol and Dublin was now constant, not only through 
the Proprietors, but by the mercantile intercourse, which 
was steadily increasing. The province was beginning to 
recognize itself as a part of England, and every pulsation 
of political life there was now felt in the province without 
diminution, and was acted upon with as much zeal as at 
home. Political sentiment in Carolina at once responded, 
therefore, to the revival of Toryism upon the accession of 
Queen Anne, — a revival here which was greatly enhanced 
by the appointment of the faithful old soldier and follower 
of the Stuarts, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, as Governor of the 
province. During the ascendency of the Whigs under 
William III, Smith, Blake, and Archdale, all dissenters, 
had governed the colony. They had each and all, it is 
true, recognized the Church of England as the established 
church of the province, and Blake had been most liberal in 
his conduct to it. Still the colony had been, until Moore's 
interregnum administration, under the government of dis- 
senters, who, it was claimed, constituted a majority of the 
people. But now the Palatine and the Governor were 
both High Churchmen. 

The party of Blake, Morton, and Axtell, led, at this 
time, by Joseph Boone and John Ash, claimed to be no 
less than two-thirds of the colonists. But, as it has been 
observed, this we may doubt, as it is difficult to understand 
how a minority could force measures on a reluctant ma- 
jority, even if we suppose, which is in itself unlikely, 
that the minority was completely united in itself.^ The 
mistake was in counting as dissenters all who were not 

1 Doyle's English Colonies in Am., 370. 



404 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

churchmen. Thus, for instance, as we liave before said, the 
French Huguenots were not dissenters ; nor were the Ger- 
man Lutherans, who were becoming quite numerous in the 
colony. The sympathies of both of these classes were 
rather with the churchmen than with the dissenters. This 
was recognized in the opposition of the latter to extend- 
ino- the elective franchise to any who were not native- 
born Englishmen ; and was proved by the readiness with 
which the clergymen of both these denominations accepted 
Episcopal rule and connected themselves with the Church 

of England. . 

As the chief obstacle in the way of carrying out in Eng- 
land the principle of uniformity in Church as well as m 
State, which had been Clarendon's policy upon the restora- 
tion of Charles II, had been the Independents and Pres- 
byterians, whose strongholds were the corporations of the 
borouo>hs, in many of which the corporations actually 
returned the borough members, and in all of which they 
exercised a powerful influence, it became necessary to drive 
the dissenters from municipal posts, in order to weaken 
if not to destroy, that party in the House of Commons. 
To accomplish this, the famous Test and Corporation acts, 
passed by a Cavalier Parliament, required, as a condition 
of entering upon any office, -civil, military, or municipal, 
— the reception of the sacraments, according to the forms 
of the Church of England, a renunciation of the League 
and Covenant, and a declaration that it was unlawful, on 
any grounds, to take up arms against the Kmg. Wilham s 
attempt partially to admit dissenters to civil equality 
by a repeal of these acts had failed ; but many dissen- 
ters had evaded their provisions by occasionally partaking 
of the communion as required, though they subsequently 
attended their own chapels. It was against this "occa- 
1 Green's IJisL English People, vol. Ill, 360. 



UNDEK THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 405 

sional conformity " that the Tories, now once more in 
power, introduced a test, which, by excluding the non- 
conformists, would have given them the command of the 
boroughs. This test first received the support of Marl- 
borough, then all-powerful under Queen Anne ; but the 
Whigs, who had ruled under William, still held the House 
of Lords, and rejected it as often as it was sent up to 
them.i 

All the world, says Oldmixon,^ knew how zealous Lord 
Granville had been for promoting the bill against " occa- 
sional conformists " in England, that he had openly shown 
his aversion to dissenters, and had been removed from 
a high position because of the bitterness of his speeches in 
regard to them. However this may have been, there can 
be no doubt that Lord Granville warmly espoused the 
cause of the High Churchmen in Carolina, and that it 
was through his influence that an attempt was made 
in this province similar to that against the " occasional 
conformity " in England. In England, however, it was 
only a part of the representation in the Commons — the 
burgesses of the cities and boroughs — that could be 
reached by the Test and Corporation acts. The knights 
of shires, the other component part of the Commons, 
could not be ; but in Carolina the whole representation 
in the Commons House was subject to statutes passed 
in the General Assembly here, and approved by the 
Proprietors in England. Lord Granville, the Palatine, 
determined that, though tlie Tories at home could not 
exclude all who were not churchmen from the Commons 
in Parliament, he at least Avould make tlie attempt to do 
so in Carolina. In this attempt he had tlie zealous co- 
operation of the noble, if somewliat bigoted. Governor, 

1 Green's Hist. Emflish People, vol. IV, 87. 

2 British Empire in Am.^ vol. I, 474. 



406 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Sir Nathaniel Johnson ; of the astute, if unprincipled, 
Chief Justice Nicholas Trott ; and also of Colonel William 
Rhett, who, though of choleric and violent disposition, 
appears to have been sincere and earnest in his devotion 
to his church. 

The Assembly, which the Colleton dissenters charged 
had been so irregularly and scandalously elected, had 
chosen Mr. Job Howes as Speaker. They had been 
prorogued to the 10th of May, and the time of their 
reassembly had not yet arrived. They were now called 
by the Governor in extra session, and on the 4th of May, 
1704, Colonel Risbee asked leave to introduce a bill. It 
was read. Its title was : ^^For the more effectual preserva- 
tion of the government of this province hy requiring all 
persons that shall hereafter he chosen members of the Com- 
mons House of Assembly^ and sit in the same to take the 
oaths and subscribe the declaration appointed by the act 
and to conform to the religious tvorship in this province 
according to the Church of England^ and to receive the 
sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the rites of the 
said church.''' 

Some members immediately called for the reading of 
the "grand charter." But the opposition was overcome. 
The bill was passed through its first reading with amend- 
ments, and Colonel Risbee was ordered to present it to 
the Governor and Council. They passed it, and returned 
it to the House. The next day it received its second 
and third readings, and was sent as a law for ratifica- 
tion to the Governor and Council. It bears date the 6th 
of May, and was signed by Sir Nathaniel Johnson and 
Colonel Thomas Broughton, Colonel James Moore, Robert 
Gibbes, Esq., Henry Noble, Esq., and Nicholas Trott, Esq., 
of the Council. It was passed in the Assembly by a 
majority of one, twelve voting for it and eleven against 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 407 

it; among the latter were some churchmen. Seven 
members were absent.^ 

The preamble to the act declared, as the reason for 
its passage, that while nothing was more contrary to 
the profession of the Christian religion, and particularly 
to the doctrine of the Church of England, than perse- 
cution for conscience only, yet nevertheless it had been 
found by experience that the admitting of persons of 
different persuasions and interests in matters of religion 
to sit and vote in the Commons House of Assembly 
had often caused great contentions and animosities in 
the province, had very much obstructed the public busi- 
ness, and that by the laws and usage of England, all 
members of Parliament were obliged to conform to the 
Church of England by receiving the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper according to the rites of the said church. It was 
doubtless true that the Colleton dissenting members of the 
House, in order to enforce the passage of an election law 
to exclude the Huguenots from voting, had obstructed the 
business of the House at a time when the safety of the 
province from invasion demanded the united action of 
every patriotic citizen. And this was done, it was also 
true, merely to secure their own political ascendency. 
The provocation to the churchmen in Carolina was 
therefore great, even had they not the additional incentive 
of Granville's wishes to accomplish the purpose as a part 
of the politics in England. But it was not true that mem- 
bers of the Britisli Parliament were obliged to conform to 
the Church of England by receiving the sacrament. And 
it is extraordinary that such a statement should have been 
made with the sanction of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who 
himself had been a member of Parliament. 

There was no law nor custom requiring a member of 
1 IlisL. Sketches of So. Ca., 218. 



408 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Parliament to do so. The Test and Corporation acts af- 
fected the membership of that body, but partially and by 
indirection. Of the two constituent parts of the House, 
the knights of the shire and the borough members, they 
could reach only one. The knights of shires, i.e. the 
county members, who were, however, usually churchmen, 
Avere not affected by them. They operated only upon the 
members of corporations as electors of burgesses. But 
their effect, even as to these, had been, in a great meas- 
ure, avoided by the custom of " occasional conformity." 
There was no precedent at home, therefore, for the strin- 
gent measures by which the churchmen in Carolina were 
outstripping the Tories in England, in their efforts to ex- 
clude the dissenters from participation in the government. 
Based upon this false premise, the act required that 
every person thereafter chosen a member of the Commons 
House should receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
according to rites and usage of the Church of England in 
some public church upon some Lord's Day, commonly 
called Sunday ; and should deliver to the Speaker a cer- 
tificate of his having done so under the hand of a minister, 
or make proof by two credible witnesses. Apart from 
other hardships and injustice of this requirement was this, 
that there was but one church as yet outside of Charles 
Town, i.e. Pompion Hill chapel on Cooper River, so that to 
comply with the act — if assented to — would require 
every member elected to journey to the town or to Pom- 
pion Hill on some Lord's Day for the purpose. But there 
was a difficulty in the way of this act on the part of some, 
at least, of its supporters. Some of them, though profess- 
ing to be members of the church, were not themselves 
communicants. Indeed, it was charged that some of them 
were blasphemers and hard livers. Mr. Marston, the min- 
ister of St. Philip's Church, who became involved in the 



UNDEK THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 409 

controversy, declared that many of the members of the 
Commons House that passed the act were constant ab- 
sentees from the church and that eleven of them were 
never known to have received the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, though for five years past he had administered 
it in his church at least six times a year. This charge is 
countenanced by a provision which would cover just such 
cases. It was provided that, as some persons might scru- 
ple to receive the sacrament by reason of their fears that 
they were not rightly fitted and prepared to partake of 
that ordinance, who did nevertheless, out of real choice, 
conform to the Church of England and sincerely profess 
the same, such persons upon making oath to the fact, and 
that they usually frequented the church for public wor- 
ship, and did not avoid the communion from any dislike 
of the manner or form of its administration as used by the 
Church of England and prescribed in the Book of Common 
Prayer, and making profession of conformity as required 
by the act, were declared sufficiently qualified to be mem- 
bers of the House. 

As might be supposed, the bill met with vehement oppo- 
position. In the House Thomas Jones, John Beamer, Laur 
Denner, William Edwards, and John Stanyarne entered 
under leave their dissent in these words, '' that King 
Charles II having granted a liberty in his charter to the 
people for the settling of this colony, we think the above 
bill too great an infringement on the liege subjects of his 
Majesty " ; Charles Colleton, " that the said bill is not 
proper for the inhabitants of the colony at this time " ; 
James Cochran because " contrary to the liberties of the 
inhabitants of the province, which liberty hath encouraged 
many persons to transport themselves into the province." 
In the Council Landgrave Joseph Morton was denied 
leave to enter his protest against tlie act. There being 



410 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

no farther use for the Assembly, it was prorogued till 
October.! 

Colleton's objection was the correct one. The act was 
not a proper one for the colony. But an appeal to the 
Royal charter would not have helped the opponents of 
the measure. That instrument did not guarantee the 
right of participation in the government to persons of all 
religious denominations. It provided that no person 
should be molested or called in question for any differences 
of opinion or practice in matters of religious concernment, 
who did not actually disturb the peace ; but that did not 
give the right to dissenters, any more than to Roman 
Catholics, to take part in the government. The religious 
liberty and freedom which the charter guaranteed related 
only to the exercise of religion without molestation ; and 
even in that it was restricted to such indulgences and dis- 
pensations as the Proprietors should think fit to grant. 
Nor could appeal be made to the Fundamental Constitu- 
tions, for the Church of England was declared by those 
laws to be " the only true and orthodox and the national 
religion of all the King's dominions." 

But all the churchmen in the colony did not approve 
the measure. It met with opposition from a quarter little 
to have been expected, and became involved in other issues. 

Upon the death of Mr. ^Marshall, in 1699, the Governor 
and Council had written to the Lord Bishop of London 
telling him of Mr. Marshall's death ; of the great virtues 
he had exhibited during his short life in the colony; how 
that by his easy, and, as it were, natural use of the cere- 
monies of the cliurch, he had taken away all occasion of 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 218, 219, quoting Journals. 

The term "prorogue" is used in cases in wliicli the Assembly is 
adjourned by the Governor from time to time. Tlie term "adjourn" 
is used in cases in whicli the Assembly ends its session by its own motion. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 411 

scandal at them, and by his prudent and obliging way of 
living and manner of practice he had gained the esteem 
of all persons ; and praying that his Lordship would send 
them such another. The same encouragement and pro- 
vision as was made for Mr. Marshall, they said, was settled 
by act of Assembly upon his successor, a minister of the 
Church of England; viz. X150 yearly, a good brick house 
and plantation, two negro slaves, and a stock of cattle, 
besides christening, marriage, and burial fees.^ 

Before learning of the death of Mr. Marshall, the Pro- 
prietors had secured the services of the Rev. Edward 
Marston, M.A., for Pompion Hill chapel in the neighbor- 
hood of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, the settlements on Goose 
Creek and Cooper River.^ Mr. Marston had been recom- 
mended not only by the Bishop of London, but by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury. Upon his arrival, in 1700, he 
was put in charge of St. Philip's Church in the place of 
Mr. Marshall. And the Rev. Samuel Thomas, the first 
missionary sent out by the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel, designed for amission to the Yamassee Indians, 
coming out soon after, but the disturbed condition of the 
country in consequence of the Spanish invasion and St. 
Augustine expedition rendering service among the Indians 
impracticable. Governor Johnson had substituted him to 
the care of the people upon the three branches of Cooper 
River in the place of Mr. Marston ; his principal place of 
residence to be at Goose Creek. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Marston was of a very different 
character from that ascribed to Mr. Marshall, whom he 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 37. 

2 This was the first Episcopal or English Church in the province out- 
side of Charles Town. It was erected by the parishioners, with the liberal 
assistance of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, on the east branch of Cooper River. 
It was built of cypress, thirty feet square, upon a small hill usually called 
Pompion Hill. 



412 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

succeeded. Though recommended by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury as well as by the Bishop of London, he had 
been a notorious Jacobite ere his coming to the province, 
and was for a time imprisoned in England for railing against 
the government.^ He brought over with him the same 
violent passions and contentious disposition. A Jacobite 
in England in the reign of William, he turned with equal 
rancor against the churchmen in Carolina under Queen 
Anne. He threw himself into violent opposition to the act 
which now so excited all parties, and vehemently assailed 
from his pulpit not only the measure itself, but all who sup- 
ported it. He was thereupon ordered by the House to lay 
the minutes of two of his sermons before its bar. This he 
refused to do, and the House addressed the Governor upon 
the subject before its adjournment. This Mr. Marston still 
more resented, and in a sermon preached the Sunday before 
the Assembly reconvened in October, he again attacked 
the House, charging it with calumniating and abusing him. 
Again the next Sunday, that is, the Sunday after the meet- 
ing of the Assembly, he boldly declared that though he 
had been ordered to lay his sermons before the House, he 
did not think himself obliged to do so, and asserted that 
he was in no wise obliged to the government for the 
bountiful revenues they had allowed him ; that he did 
not think himself inferior to them or obliged to give an 
account of his actions to them ; that though they gave 
him a maintenance, he was their superior, his authority 
being from Christ. He compared the members of the 
House to Korah and his rebellious companions. 

Mr. Marston had meddled in another matter with which 
he had no concern. The Colleton members, who had 
withdrawn from the House the year before, had sent Mr. 
Ash to Europe to lay their grievances before the Lords 

1 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 376. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 418 

Proprietors, and, if necessary, before the Royal Govern- 
ment itself. Apprehending that if the purpose of his 
voyage was known he might be in some way detained, Mr. 
Ash had hurried to Virginia, to sail thence instead of em- 
barking for England from Charles Town, and there Land- 
grave Smith had addressed him letters reflecting very 
sharply upon the conduct of the House. Just before the 
adjournment of the Assembly, Smith wrote to Ash, June 30, 
1703, the House had passed "a noble vote" interpreting 
the '' Regulating Bill," that is, the law regulating elections 
so that foreigners, as well as natural-born subjects, should 
have the liberty to vote if they were worth £10 and had 
been in the province three months ; "and honest Ralph," 
he said, " who loves slavery better than liberty moved 
your Honorable assembly to bring in a bill to naturalize 
all foreigners next spring ... so that unless we have a 
Regulating Bill and some other acts passed in England for 
the good government of this country I cannot see how we 
can pretend to live happy here." Again, on the 25th of 
July, Smith wrote to Mr. Ash: "Enclosed you will find 
another copy of the famous vote of our Assembly for fear 
the same should not come to your hands ; also a copy of 
their Act against Blasphemy and Profaneness which they 
always made a great noise about, although they are some 
of the most profanest in the country themselves ; yet you 
know gr^at pretenders to religion and honesty for a colour 
for their Roguery." ^ 

These letters fell into the hands of Governor Johnson. 
Oldmixon says they were betrayed into his hands upon 
the death of Mr. Ash, which occurred in England soon after 
his arrival there. Governor Johnson, on the reconvening 
of the Assembly on the 5th of October, laid the letters 
before the House, that they might, he said, take such 
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 50, quoting MSS. Journals. 



414 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

measures as should make Mr. Smith sensible of his fault 
and might deter all others for the future from committing 
like offences against the government. Landgrave Smith 
attended the House on the 9th and acknowledged the 
letters, whereupon he was taken into the custody of the 
Messenger. 

This was certainly a most arbitrary and unwarranted 
proceeding, appertaining more to the military character of 
Sir Nathaniel than illustrating his prudence and justice as 
a civil administrator. Mr. Smith had certainly the right 
to express his opinion of the proceedings of the House in 
a private letter to his personal correspondent, even though 
that person was on a journey to complain of the conduct 
of the government to the authorities in England. He 
had committed no contempt of the House in doing so ; the 
Governor's conduct was not above the criticism of the 
humblest citizen. But all this was none of Mr. Marston's 
business as a minister of the church. He had no more 
right to arraign the government from his pulpit than the 
House had to arrest Landgrave Smith for opinions ex- 
pressed in private letters. But, burning to be prominent 
in all affairs, he again preached at the House, denouncing 
it as having proceeded illegally and arbitrarily against Mr. 
Smith; and ostentatiously visited him while in the custody 
of the officer. Upon this the House, which appears on the 
other hand to have been ridiculously sensitive as to its 
dignity and unnecessarily disposed to assert it, summoned 
Mr. Marston to its bar. The reverend gentleman appeared, 
but continuing in his controversy, the Governor, Council, 
and House deprived him of his salary, and in doing so, 
thus addressed him : — 

"Now as to your Office and Ecclesiastical function 
we do not pretend to meddle with it, altliough by your 
Carriage of late you have deserved to be taken notice of, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 415 

but we leave those matters to your Ecclesiastical Governors 
and Ordinary to proceed against you for this House doth 
not pretend to meddle with your Function. But for your 
imprudent carriage and behaviour above recited it's the 
Resolution of this House, and it's ordered that whereas 
X150 is to be paid yearly to the Minister or Incumbent 
of Charles Town by the Public Receiver that you be 
deprived of the Salary during the pleasure of this House, 
and that you continue so deprived until such time as by an 
Order of this House upon Amendment better Behaviour 
and Submission you be restored to the same." 

Mr. Marston refused to hear this censure and withdrew. 
The House from regard for his profession, as it declared, 
"did not order him into the custody of the messenger," 
but directed him to be served v/ith a copy of the cen- 
sure.i 

When the Assembly met in October, none of those who 
had protested against the disqualifying act appeared at 
first in their seats. Much time was consumed in settling 
Mr. Marston's case. Notwithstanding Mr. Marston's con- 
duct, the churchmen proceeded to provide for the estab- 
lishment of religious worship in the province according to 
the Church of England. This much was undoubtedly con- 
templated by the charter and provided for in the Fundamen- 
tal Constitutions, which the dissenters were now represent- 
ing to the Proprietors to be the accepted law of the land. 
But in the measures proposed a clause was inserted, di- 
rected, as Governor Johnson subsequently admitted, to 
meet the case of Mr. Marston, "the pest of the country" 
as he termed liim. Mr. Marston was undoubtedly the im- 
mediate cause of the provision, but Oldmixon, who so 
vehemently assails the act as uncanonical and unjust, in 
his account of the West Indies has given the strongest 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 57, 58. 



416 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

evidence of the necessity of some provision for tlie super- 
vision of clergymen coming out to tlie colonies. 

Mr. Ralph Izard — '' honest Ralph " of Landgrave 
Smith's letter — introduced the bill. It was entitled ^'' An 
act for the establishment of religious worship in this Prov- 
ince according to the Qhurch of England^ and for the erect- 
ing churches for tine public ivorship of God, ayid also for 
the maintenance of ministers and the building of convenient 
Houses for them'^ ^ The act prescribed that the Book of 
Common Prayer and administration of the sacrament, and 
other rites and ceremonies of the church, the Psalter or 
Psalms of David, and Morning and Evening Prayer therein 
contained, should be read by every minister or reader set- 
tled and established by law, and that all congregations and 
places of worship, for the maintenance of whose ministers 
any certain income or revenue was raised or paid by law, 
should be deemed settled and established churches. 

Charles Town and the neck between Cooper and Ash- 
ley Rivers were made into a distinct parish by the name of 
the parish of St. Philip's in Charles Town. The church 
in Charles Town (i.e. that which stood where St. Michael's 
now stands), and the ground thereunto adjoining enclosed 
and used for a cemetery or churchyard, were declared to be 
the parish church and churchyard of St. Philip's, Charles 
Town. 

Berkeley County was divided into six parishes : " one 
in Charles Town, St. Philip's ; one upon the southeast of 
Wando River; one upon that neck of land lying on the 
northwest of Wando and southeast of Cooper River ; one 
on the western branch of Cooper River ; one upon Goose 
Creek ; and one upon Ashley River." Six churches were 
to be built, one in each of the five parishes outside of 
Charles Town, and one on the south side of Stono River 

1 Statutes of So. Ga., vol. II, 230; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 58. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 417 

in Colleton County, which territory was not, however, 
made into a parish. Lands were to be taken up from 
the Lords Proprietors, or purchased for glebes and recto- 
ries. The expense of building these churches, parsonage 
houses, etc., were to be defrayed out of any subscriptions 
made for that purpose ; the balance to be paid out of the 
public treasury. Supervisors for building these churches 
and parsonages were appointed, with power to press bricks, 
or lime, and other material, and to compel carpenters, 
joiners, workmen, and laborers to work under the same 
provisions and penalties as were prescribed for building 
the entrenchments and fortifications of the town. The 
supervisors had also power to press slaves for work upon 
these buildings. In addition to the glebe, parsonage 
houses, negroes, etc., which should appertain to each, 
the incumbent of each parish church was to draw a salary 
of .£50 per annum from the public treasury. It was pro- 
vided that the ministers of the several parishes should be 
chosen by the major part of the inhabitants of the parish 
that were of the religion of the Church of England and 
conformed to the same, and were either freeholders within 
the parish or contributed to the public taxes. Then fol- 
lowed the clause providing for the lay commission, with 
power to remove or suspend incumbents from their bene- 
fices. 

As we have before intimated, though probably the ap- 
proximate cause, Mr. Marston's conduct was not the sole 
inducement to the enactment of the provision. The posi- 
tion of the clergy of the Church of England in the colonies 
was peculiar. The jurisdiction of tlie Bishop of London 
was generally acceded to in the American colonies, but 
not universally ; no provision had been made by the civil 
government or by the Church of England for the Episco- 
pal supervision of the clergy who came out to America. 

2e 



418 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

In the early settlement of Virginia, Bishop King, the then 
Bishop of London, who had taken great interest in that 
colony, had in consequence been chosen a member of the 
King's Council for that province. In this position it was 
but natural that in all ecclesiastical matters he should be 
consulted, and there grew out of his personal interest the 
recognition, to some extent, of his spiritual jurisdiction.^ 
Beginning probably in this way. Episcopal jurisdiction of 
the colonies was generally assumed by Bishop King's suc- 
cessors, the Bishops of London. Other reasons were also 
assigned for its support. Here it was said to be because, 
as London was the commercial city of England, by a 
fiction the Bishop of London's jurisdiction went with 
London commerce. However originating, the Bishop of 
London's jurisdiction, or at least the right to his especial 
care and oversight, had hitherto been accepted and acted 
upon in the colony. Governor Blake and his Council, as 
we have just seen, acting upon it, had, upon the death of 
Mr. Marshall, immediately applied to Bishop Compton, 
asking him to send out a successor. But this jurisdiction 
was elsewhere questioned. It was disputed in Maryland,^ 
and was denied in the West Indies. In Jamaica it was 
barred by the laws of the colony, and the Governor, as the 
supreme head of the provincial church, not onl}^ inducted 

1 Hist. Am. Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 74. 

Anderson, in his History of the Colonial Church, gives another version. 
He attributes the origin of the Bishop of London's jurisdiction to a letter 
from Archbishop Laud to the merchants at Delph, and instructions to 
Mr, Beaumont to certify to the Bishop of London any disobedience of 
the King's ordinance enforcing the canons and liturgy of the church, 
(Vol, I, 410). He admits, however, that he cannot find any other meas- 
ure by which Virginia was formally constituted a part of the diocese of 
London than Bishop King's connection with the King's Council. Ibid., 
261. 

'^ Maryland, Am. Commonwealth (Brown), 192 ; Anderson's Hist, of 
the Colonial Ch., vol. Ill, 179. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 419 

clergymen into their benefices, but was vested with power 
also of suspending a clergyman for lewd and disorderly 
life upon the application of his parishioners.^ 

Fortunately for the church in South Carolina, as it hap- 
pened, blessed with the aid of the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, in the benefits of which she was the 
first of all the colonies to participate, and by the care of 
her Governor and Council, her clergymen generally were 
men of character fully worthy of their high calling. Gov- 
ernor Craven in 1712, recommending provision for their 
remuneration, could truthfully say: "We may boast as 
learned a clergy as any in America, men unblemished in 
their lives and principles, who live up to the religion they 
profess ; some of tliem have been long amongst us to whom 
a particular regard is due ; always indefatigable in their 
functions, visiting the sick, fearless of distempers and 
never neglecting their duty," etc.^ However contentious 
and contumacious was Mr. Marston, not even in his case, 
it must be recorded, was there breath of suspicion of im- 
moral conduct. But, unhappily, such had not been the 
character always of the clergymen of the church, who had 
been sent out to America. They had been often the out- 
casts of the church at home. Oldmixon himself, in his 
history of Jamaica, has given, on the authority of other 
writers and on liis own testimony, a most deplorable ac- 
count of the clergy of that island. They were of vile 
cliaracter, and with few exceptions the most finished of 
all debauchees. They troubled themselves little about 
the church, the doors of which were seldom opened.^ The 
same complaint, he says, was general over all the colonies. 
In Maryland " the Reprobate Coode," a blatant blasphemer 

1 Hist. West Indies (Bryan Edwards), vol. I, 208. 

2 Public Records So. Ca. 

^ British Empire in Am.., vol. II, 374-418. 



420 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and drunkard, was intriguing and disturbing the peace of 
the Commonwealth, and the good Dr. Bray, the commis- 
sary of the Bishop of London, with his disputed title, found 
no easy task in his efforts at the reformation of others.^ 
Though the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London was not 
questioned in Virginia, even there the authority of his 
Commissary Blair was found a very insufficient substitute 
for the superintendence of a faithful bishop.^ Men repre- 
senting themselves as clergymen of the church presented 
themselves without letters, and there was no means of as- 
certaining whether they really had orders. The litigious 
and erratic Marston was followed by a fugitive from Mary- 
land, Richard Marsden by name, who claimed to be a clergy- 
man, and accounted for the absence of his letters by the 
improbable story that they had been blown overboard by 
the wind at sea, when he was drying them after a storm.^ 
It w^as in this condition of the Church of England in 
America, that the Governor and Assembly in South Caro- 
lina found themselves, while endeavoring to establish the 
church in the province, in actual contention with a clergy- 
man for whose support they were providing, while he was 
in open defiance of their authority. It is not improbable 
that had there been no trouble with Mr. Marston, the pro- 
vision for removing incumbents, when necessary, would 
yet have been made, as similar provisions then existed in 
the West Indies. Mr. Marston's conduct was, neverthe- 
less, the immediate inducement to its adoption. The rea- 

1 Maryhtnd, Am. Commonwealtli, 191. 

2 Virginia, Am. Commonwealth (Cooke), 332; Old Churches, etc., of 
Virginia (Bishop Meade), 16. 

^ Hist. Am. Episcopal Church (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 377. 

"When an English nobleman, it is said, asked a bishop why he con- 
ferred Holy Orders on such an arrant set of blockheads as some of those 
sent out to our colonies, he replied, "Because it was better to have the 
ground ploughed by asses than to leave it a waste full of thistles." 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 421 

son for the provision is thus set out in the preamble in the 
act.^ It recites : — ■ 

" And whereas it may often happen that a rector or minister may- 
be chosen pursuant to the Act ... of wliose qualifications or dis- 
positions the inhabitants may have but small acquaintance or may be 
otherwise mistaken in the person, who may act contrary to what was 
expected of him at his election so that it is highly necessary to have 
a power lodged in some persons for the removing of all or any of the 
several rectors or ministers of the several parishes or to translate 
them from one parish to another as to them shall seem convenient, 
otherwise in case any immoral or imprudent clergyman should happen 
to be appointed rector or minister of any parish the people would be 
without any remedy against him, or in case there should arise such 
incurable prejudices, dissentions, animosities and implacable offences 
between such rector or minister and his people, that all reverence for 
and benefit by his ministry is utterly to be despaired of (although he 
is not guilty of more grosser or scandalous crimes) yet it may be very 
convenient to have him removed from being rector or minister of 
that parish to which he did belong, and where such dissentions and 
offences are arisen, otherwise great evils and inconveniences may 
ensue upon the same." 

With this recital of the occasion for the enactment, the 
clause provides : — 

"... That the commissioners hereafter named or the major part 
of them shall have power where they think it convenient (upon the 
request and at the desire of any nine parishioners that do conforme to 
and are of the religion of the Church of England and are persons of 
credit and reputation, together with the request of the major part of 
the vestry of the parish, signified under their hand and retpiesting the 
removal of their rector or minister of such parish) to cite such minis- 
ter before them and to hear the complaints against such minister or 
rector allowing him reasonable time to make his defence and upon 
hearing of the same if the said commission or the major part of them 
shall think it convenient to remove such rector or minister, they are 
hereby authorized and empowered to do the same."^ 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 240. 

2 An attempt was made to establish a similar Board of Lay Commis- 
sioners in Maryland. An act for the purpose passed both Houses of the 



422 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Upon the passage of this act it was moved " that any 
member may have liberty to enter his dissent against a 
vote or proceedings made in this House." But, on the con- 
trary, it was " Resolved that no member shall have leave 
to enter his dissent. " It has been objected that the act 
was in the nature of an ex post facto law.^ But no action 
was taken against Mr. Marston, under its provisions, for 
what had occurred previously to its passage. On the con- 
trary, Dalcho says, it does not appear that these proceed- 
ings of the General Assembly had much influence upon 
Mr. Marston's conduct. He was again arraigned before 
the House of Commons, February 5, 1704-1705, for having 
spoken falsely to the prejudice of Major Charles Colleton, 
a member, and it was resolved that he had been guilty of 
high breach of privilege, and that his assertions were false 
and malicious. A motion was made, February 8, to bring 
in a bill to displace him ''for his imprudent behaviour 
in general and his reflection on the honour and justice of 
this House since the last censure by the General Assem- 
bly." This motion was, however, lost, but another vote 
of censure passed. It was not until the next year, 1705, 
that Mr. Marston was arraigned before the Board of Lay 
Commissioners and deprived of his living.^ 

The act imposing a religious test was to operate on the 
members of the Assembly to be chosen; fortunately, there 
was no such objectionable feature in another important 
measure of this time upon the same subject, i.e. " Ayi act to 
regulate the manner of elections.''^ ^ Until 1696 there had 
been no statutory provision regulating elections, except 

Provincial Assembly in 1708. Anderson's Hist, of the Colonial Ch.., vol. 
Ill, 180. 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 220. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 62, 63. 

3 Statutes of So. Ca.y vol. II, 249. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 423 

those contained in the Fundamental Constitutions, which 
had never been in operation. During Lud well's adminis- 
tration, an act upon the subject had been passed ; but it 
had been disallowed by the Proprietors.^ Elections had 
been hitherto conducted under the directions of the pre- 
cepts of the Governor, in pursuance of the instructions of 
the Proprietors. Thus Ave have seen Sothell admitting the 
Huguenots to vote, and Archdale excluding them. Elec- 
tions had, however, as has appeared, always been conducted 
by ballot.^ The act of 1796 has not been preserved. We 
onl}^ know of it from the repealing clause of an act of 
1704, which is the first upon the subject which has come 
down to us.^ This was entitled ^'A'ti act to regulate the 
elections of members of the Assembly.''^ This act, which, 
it will be observed, was one to j^ecjulate elections of mem- 
bers of the Assembly, recognizes the use of the ballot as the 
manner of elections existing at the time of its passage. It 
does not prescribe the use of ballots anew, but provides for 
their preservation from one day to another, during the 
continuance of the election. In the clause directing the 
sheriff to publish his precept, or writ, it is true, it is pro- 
vided " and all voices or votes given before such publica- 
tions are hereby declared void and of no force," and in 
that requiring the elections to be held in public, it is said 
"that no person whatsoever, hereby qualified to vote, shall, 
being absent from the place of election, give his voice or 
vote by proxy, letter or any other way whatsoever, but shall 
be present in person, or his voice to be taken for none." 

It is manifest that voice and written vote, i.e. ballot, are 
used here synonymously ; for one could not send his nat- 
ural voice by proxy or letter, nor could his voice be taken 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), Appendix, 487. 

2 Ante, p. 198 et seq. 

3 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 130, 249. 



424 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

for any if absent. That the term " voice " is used in this 
sense is made still more clear from the clause providing 
that the elections shall continue for two days, which pre- 
scribes that the Sheriff at " every adjournment shall seal up 
in a paper bag or box all the votes given in that day in the 
presence of and with the seals of two or more of each con- 
tending party and the same shall break open at the next 
meeting," etc. The phonograph had not been conceived 
at that time, and the paper bag or box would scarcely 
have retained during the night and emitted the voices 
when the seals were broken open the next morning. 

The qualifications prescribed for a voter were that the 
person must be twenty-one years of age and own fifty 
acres of land, or the value of XIO in money, goods, chat- 
tels, or rents, and have resided in the precinct in which 
he offered to vote three months before the date of the 
writs of election, to which qualifications he was required 
to make oath. Elections were to continue for two days, 
and to be held in public. Carrying out the analogy to the 
House of Lords in England, no Proprietor or deputy of a 
Proprietor was allowed to vote. No alien born out of the 
allegiance of the Qaeen was qualified to be a member of 
the House. 



CHAPTER XIX 

1704-1706 

Mr. Ash, who had been hurried off by the way of Vir- 
ginia to avoid his being detained by the Governor, had 
arrived in England and applied at once to Lord Granville, 
the Palatine ; but finding that his Lordship was entirely 
in the interest of the church party in Carolina, and de- 
spairing of obtaining from that source redress of the griev- 
ances of which he had come to complain, he drew up the 
representation and address of the Colleton members of the 
Assembly, from which so much has been quoted, and was 
superintending the printing of it, but died before it was 
completed.^ The paper, though addressed to Lord Gran- 
ville, was no doubt designed to reach higher authority 
than the Proprietors. Oldmixon admits that Mr. Ash 
may have represented things with too much partiality ;2 
and Archdale says tliat he was not a person suitably quali- 
fied for his mission, not that he wanted wit, but temper.^ 

Upon Mr. Ash's death Mr. Joseph Boone was sent. Mr. 
Boone, upon his ariival in England, found that he had not 
left behind him in Carolina the excitement and passions 
engendered by the religious controversy which distracted 
the province. Ho had, indeed, but come to its source, 
and found it raging in England with greater violence 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 482. 

2 IMd., 488. 

3 Carroll's Coll., vol. TI, 112. 

425 



426 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

than at home. It so happened that contemporaneously 
with the passage of the church act in Carolina (November 
4, 1704), of which he had come to complain, the Tory 
House of Commons in England had been making another 
vigorous effort to enact the " Occasional Conformity Bill." 
Parliament had met on October 29, and notwithstand- 
ing all the efforts of the ministry to induce the leading 
men of the High Church party to restrain their zeal till 
they might have an opportunity of gratifjdng it without 
embarrassing the public business, the measure was at 
once again introduced, and passed to a second reading. 
At this stage, well aware that it would be rejected by 
the House of Lords, upon its own merits, as it had been 
twice already, it was tacked to a tax bill, so that the Lords 
would be obliged to reject the tax bill as well as the 
Occasional Conformity bill, or to pass the one with the 
other ; it being a fundamental principle that the Lords 
could not alter a money bill, but must adopt or reject it 
as it was sent to them. Connecting this church matter 
with a supply bill necessarily involved Marlborough's 
operations, and it would, it was said, give the French King 
almost as great an advantage as Marlborough had gained 
over him a few months before at Blenheim. On the other 
hand, it was wittily said that the supplies were offered as a 
portion annexed to the church as in a marriage, and they 
did not doubt but that the court would exert itself to 
secure its passage when it was accompanied with two 
millions as its price. The bill passed the Commons on 
the 5th of December after a long debate, and was sent 
to the House of Lords. But the House of Lords would 
jiot be intimidated; on the 14th of December the supply 
bill with its tack was rejected.^ 

This, the first Parliament of Queen Anne, was about to 

1 Pari. Hist., vol. VI, 359-368. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 427 

expire by the limitation of the biennial act. A proclama- 
tion was accordingly issued on April 5, 1705, for dissolv- 
ing it, and on the 23d another was published calling a 
new Parliament. It was during the excitement of the 
election for the new Commons that Mr. Boone arrived in 
England. Before we take leave of this Parliament, how- 
ever, it is most interesting to observe that another subject 
of debate in CaroMna had also been before that body. 
Among the bills which fell with tlie session, though not 
actually rejected, was one offered for the naturalization 
of some hundred Frenchmen, to which the Commons 
added a clause disabling the persons so naturalized from 
voting in elections of Parliament. This was done, though 
it was observed that these people in England gave in all 
elections their votes for those who were most zealous 
against France. The Commons, nevertheless, did not be- 
lieve that they could be so impartial to the interests of 
their native country as to be trusted with a share in the 
government of England.^ 

The elections of the members of the House of Commons 
was conducted with the greatest zeal on both sides. The 
clergy took pains to infuse into all minds the great dan- 
gers to which the church was exposed. The universities 
were inflamed with the same idea, and took all possible 
means to spread it over the nation. The danger to the 
Church pi England grew to be the Avatchword as in an 
army. Men were known as they answered it. Books 
were written and distributed with great industry to im- 
press upon all people the apprehension that the church 
was to be given up, that the bishops were betraying it, 
and that the court would sell it to the dissenters. A me- 
morial of the Church of England, written by some zealous 
churchman, was printed and spread abroad, setting forth 

1 Pari. Hist., vol. VI, 337. 



428 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

her melancholy situation and distress. The dissenters, on 
the other hand, Avho had formerly been much divided, 
were now entirely united, and joined with the Whigs 
everywhere.^ It was in the midst of this excitement that 
Mr. Boone appeared upon the scene in the interests of the 
dissenters of South Carolina. 

Mr. Boone was a merchant trading with London, and 
there he induced the principal merclmnts in the Carolina 
trade to join him in a second representation of the dis- 
senters' case. He also applied to Lord Granville, the Pala- 
tine, to be heard by the Proprietors. But, as we have 
already seen, it was no easy matter to get a meeting of 
that body even in quiet times to transact the ordinary and 
necessary business of the colony. It was still more dif- 
ficult to do so at this time of political turmoil, especially 
when the purpose of the meeting was to hear a protest 
against a measure which was warmly approved, if it had 
not been actually suggested, by the Palatine himself. It 
was seven weeks before he could succeed in having a 
meeting called.^ 

The Proprietors at this time were : John Lord Granville, 
Palatine ; William Lord Craven ; John Lord Carteret (then 
a minor) ; Maurice Ashley, representing his brother, the 
Earl of Shaftesbury ; Sir John Colleton ; Joseph Blake (a 
minor) ; Nicholas Trott of London, and John Archdale.^ 

When at last a meeting was obtained, Mr. Archdale, we 
are told, opposed the ratification of the bill against the 
dissenters with such solid reasons tliat it is amazing to 
find the Palatine so shortly answering them.* Mr. Arch- 
dale soon after wrote an account of the province, in which 

1 Pari. Hist., vol. VI, 442. 

2 British Empire in Am.^ vol. I, 486. 

3 CairoU's Coll., vol. II, 115. 

* British Empire in Am., vol. I, 486. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 429 

he treats mainly of this controversy ; but his style is so 
loose and rambling that it is difficult to extract from it the 
reasons, solid or otherwise, he urged upon the occasion.^ 
But whatever they were. Lord Granville replied to him 
very curtly : '' Sir, you are of one opinion, I am of another, 
and our lives may not be long enough to end the con- 
troversy. I am for the bill, and this is the party I will 
hear and countenance." Mr. Boone then asked that he 
might be heard by counsel. To this Lord Granville 
replied : " What business has counsel here ? It is a pruden- 
tial act in me, and I will do as I see fit. I see no harm at 
all in this bill and I am resolved to pass it." ^ 

The acts were approved by Lord Granville for himself, 
and for the minor Lord John Carteret, Lord William 
Craven, and Sir John Colleton. Joseph Blake was a minor 
in Carolina. It is not known what part Maurice Ashley or 
Nicholas Trott of London took in the discussion ; or even 
that they were present. The Proprietors, approving the 
acts, wrote to Sir Nathaniel Johnson : " Sir the great and 
pious work which you have gone through, with such 
unwearied and steady zeal, for the honor and worship of 
Almighty God, we have also finally perfected on our part ; 
and our ratification of that act for erecting churches, &ct 
together with duplicates of all other dispatches, we have 
forwarded to you " etc.^ 

The Tories in England had outwitted themselves and 
overstrained their power in their futile efforts to tack the 
measure against the " occasional conformity " of the dis- 
senters upon the supply bill. Devoted to the church as 
were the people generally, they were at this time pecul- 
iarly jealous of the honor of the country, and zealous in 

1 Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 114. 

2 BritUh Empire in Am., vol. I, 481. 

3 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 170. 



430 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the support of the war. They resented the spirit which 
would have dimmed the lustre of Blenheim in order merely 
to maintain power. The odium of indifference to the 
glories of Marlborough and the army in Germany was too 
heavy a burden for the Tories to bear. The result of the 
election was a large majority in favor of the war, and a 
coalition between the moderate men of both parties. The 
High Church party had lost its power ; but the people 
were still sensitive upon the subject of the safety of the 
church. The danger of the church was the subject of a 
great debate in both Houses of the new Parliament and 
of a proclamation by the Queen. It was resolved by the 
House of Lords that the church was in no danger, and so 
her Majesty proclaimed, but among the dissentients to 
the resolution was Dr. Compton, Bishop of London ; and 
one of the dangers his Lordship declared was "the 
want of a law to prevent any person whatsoever from 
holding offices of trust and authority both in church and 
state who are not constantly of the communion of the 
church established by law." ^ 

In this condition of public opinion in England, Mr. 
Boone, the representative of the dissenters, himself a rigid 
one, not content with the cause of his own people, assumed 
also the championship of the church in Carolina, and par- 
ticularly of Mr. Marston, as against that of the Governor, 
Council, and Commons of South Carolina. Earl}^ in 1706, 
he presented a memorial in behalf of liimself and many 
otlier inhabitants of the province of Carolina, and also of 
several merchants of London trading to Carolina, to the 
House of Lords, which was still the stronghold of the 
Whigs. ^ The memorial set forth : — 



1 Parh Hist., vol. VI, 479-507. 

'■^ Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 04 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 637. 



UNDEll THE PK0PRIP:TA11Y GOVERNMENT 431 

" That when the Province of Carolina was granted to the Proprie- 
tors, for the better peoi^ling of it, express provision was made in the 
charter for a toleration and indulgence of all christians in the free 
exercise of their religion ; that in the Fundamental Constitutions 
agreed to be the form of government by the Proprietors, there was 
also express provision made, that no person should be disturbed for 
any speculative opinion in religion, and that no person should on 
account of religion be excluded from being a member of the General 
Assembly or from any other office in the civil administration. That 
the said charter being given soon after the happy restoration of King 
Charles II and reestablishment of the Church of England by the 
Act of Uniformity, many of the subjects of the Kingdom who were so 
unhappy as to have some scruples about conforming to the rites of 
the said Church, did transplant themselves and families into Carolina; 
by means whereof the greatest part of the inhabitants there, were 
Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England, and through the 
equality and freedom of the said Fundamental Constitutions, all the 
inhabitants of the colony lived in peace, and even the Ministers of 
the Church of England had support from the Protestant Dissenters, and 
the number of inhabitants and the trade of the colony daily increased 
to the great improvement of her Majesty's customs, and the manifest 
advantage of the merchants and manufacturers of the kingdom. 

" But that in the year 1703 when a new Assembly was to be 
chosen, which by the constitution, is chosen once in two years, the 
election was managed with very great partiality and injustice, and all 
sorts of people, even aliens, Jews, servants common sailors and 
negroes were admitted to vote at elections ; That in the said Assem- 
bly an act was passed to incapacitate every person from being a mem- 
ber of any General Assembly that should be chosen for the time to 
come, unless he had taken the Sacrament of the Lord's supper accord- 
ing to the rites of the Church of England ; whereby all Protestant 
Dissenters are made incapable of being in the said Assembly ; and 
yet by the same act all persons who shall take an Oath that they have 
not received the sacrament in any Dissenting Congregation for one 
year past, though they have not received it in the Church of England, 
are made capable of sitting in the said Assembl}^; That tliis act was 
passed in an illegal manner, by the Governor calling the Assembly to 
meet on the 25th of April, when it then stood prorogued to the 10th 
of May following: That it hath been ratified by the Lords Proprie- 
tors in England who refused to hear what could be offered against it, 
and contrary to the petition of 170 of the chief inhabitants of the 



432 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Colony, and of several eminent merchants trading hither, though the 
Commons of the same Assembly quickly after passed another bill to 
repeal it, which the upper House rejected ; and the Governor dissolved 
the House. 

"That the Ecclesiastical government of the colony is under the 
Bishop of London ; but the Governor and his adherents have at last 
done what the latter often threatened to do, totally abolished it : for the 
same Assembly have passed an act whereby twenty lay persons therein 
named are made a corporation for the exercise of several exorbitant 
powers to the great injury and oppression of the people in general 
and for the exercise of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with absolute 
power to deprive any Minister of the Church of England of his bene- 
fice, not only for immorality, but even for imprudence or incurable 
prejudices between such minister and his parish; and the only Minis- 
ter of the church established in the Colony, Mr. Edward Marston, 
hath already been cited before their Board, which the inhabitants of 
the province take to be an high ecclesiastical commission-court de- 
structive to the very being and essence of the church of England, and 
to be held in the utmost detestation and abhorrence by every man 
that is not an enemy to our constitution in Church and State. 

" That the said grievances daily increasing your petitioner Joseph 
Boone is now sent by many principal inhabitants and traders of the 
Colony, to represent the languishing and dangerous situation of it to 
the Lords Proprietors ; but his application to them has hitherto had 
no effect : That the ruin of the colony would be to the great disad- 
vantage of the trade of the kingdom, to the apparent prejudice of her 
Majesty's customs, and the great benefit of the French who watch 
all opportunities to improve their own settlements in those parts of 
America." 

None can be found at this day to approve the sacramen- 
tal test proposed in Carolina for the qualification of elec- 
tors, or the attempted prohibition of occasional conformity 
in England. But this memorial is certainly a curious docu- 
ment to have been presented by a Puritan, a Roundhead, 
and follower of the Blakes, in behalf of those who had 
left England because of the Stuarts and the reestablish- 
ment of the church there. If Mr. Boone and those whom 
he represented could truthfully invoke " the happy res- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 43B 

toration of King Charles II," and express their satisfaction 
" at the reestablishment of the Church," why had they left 
England because of " their scruples about conforming to 
its rites " ? Did they really rejoice at the overthrow of 
the Commonwealth and the restoration of the Royal 
family ? Could they candidly appeal to the equality and 
freedom of the Fundamental Constitutions, which ex- 
plicitly established the church ? It was not true that the 
charter prescribed a toleration and indulgence of all 
Christians. What it did, as already pointed out, was to 
give authority to the Proprietors to grant such indul- 
gences and dispensations as in their judgment were fit and 
reasonable. To such persons as the Proprietors should 
thus indulge, leave was given freely and quietly to en- 
joy their consciences in matters of religion, " they behav- 
ing themselves peacefully and not using their liberty to 
licentiousness or to the disturbance of others." ^ But this 
indulgence which the Proprietors were authorized to allow 
did not by any means necessarily carry with it the right 
to vote at elections or participate in the government. 
The elective franchise was not then, nor indeed is it to- 
day, regarded in England as an inherent right of citizen- 
ship, necessarily accompanying liberty of conscience in 
religious matters. 

But still more singular is it that Mr. Boone and his co- 
petitioners — dissenters all — should liave assumed the 
defence of the church as well as the carriage of their 
own burdens of discontent, and have undertaken to main- 
tain the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of London 
over the colonies in America, and to resent the incorpora- 
tion of the Lay Board and its powers. This last, indeed, 
is the most remarkable of all the strange features of the 
paper, considering its source. Mr. Boone and his people 

1 Ante, Chap. III. 
2f 



434 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in Carolina were Congregationalists, or Independents, the 
very essence of whose doctrine was the repudiation " of 
the authority of pope, prelate, presbytery, prince, or Par- 
liament," and antagonism to the Episcopal authority of 
the Church of England. Surely, it might have been sup- 
posed that such religionists would have hailed the asser- 
tion of the authority of the laity of the Church of England 
in Carolina to free themselves from unworthy or unfit 
clergymen as a vindication to that extent of their own 
church polity, — from whence, indeed, it was doubtless 
derived. But, on the contrary, we find this document 
resenting the interference of the laity with Episcopal 
authority, and declaring that the inhabitants of the prov- 
ince, including, of course, the Independents themselves, 
take this board " to be an high ecclesiastical commission- 
court destructive to the very being and essence of the 
church of England, and to be held in the utmost detesta- 
tion and abhorrence by every man, that is not an enemy 
to our constitution in Church and State." 

The insincerity of the memorialists is obvious. It was 
quite on a par with that of the churchmen, who, while 
prescribing that no dissenter should vote who did not 
submit himself to conformity with tlie church, evidenced 
by communing at its altars, provided a saving clause, 
exempting themselves from a compliance with their own 
requirements. In the one case, as in the other, religion 
was made the stalking-horse of political power. 

But the Whig House of Lords, to Avhich Mr. l^oone 
now appealed, self-righteously indignant at the attem[)t 
of the churclimen in Carolina to follow the example of 
the Tories in England to weaken their influence by 
excluding nonconformists from the voting power, over- 
looked the incongruity of the petitioners and their peti- 
tion, and hastened at the close of the session, which the 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 435 

establishment of the union with Scotland now rendered 
necessary, to espouse their cause. On the 12th of March, 
1706, their Lordships voted an address to the Queen upon 
the subject. In this address it is declared : ^ — 

First, that it was the opinion of the House that the act 
of the Assembly of Carolina, for the establishment of 
religious worship, '' so far forth as the same relates to the 
establishment of a Commission for the displacing of Rec- 
tors or Ministers of the Churches there, is not warranted 
by the Charter granted to the Proprietors of that Colony, 
as being not consonant to Reason, repugnant to the Laws 
of this Realm, and destructive to the constitution of 
the Church of England." 

Secondly, that it was the opinion of the House that 
the act requiring all persons chosen members of the Com- 
mons House of Assembly to conform to the religious wor- 
ship of the province, and to receive the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of 
England "is founded upon falsity in matter of fact, is 
repugnant to the Laws of England, contrary to the Charter 
granted by the Proprietors of that Colony, is an encourage- 
ment to Atheism and Irreligion, destructive to trade, and 
tends to the depopulating and ruining of the Province." 

Whereupon their Lordships prayed her Majesty to de- 
liver the province from the arbitrary oppressions under 
which it now lies ; and to order the author to be prose- 
cuted according to laAV. They also represented to her 
Majesty how much the powers given by the Crown have 
been abused by some of her subjects ; but justice required 
them, they said, to inform her Majesty that some of the 
Proprietors had refused to join in the ratification of these 
acts. They also informed her Majesty that other great 
injustices and oppressions were complained of which it was 
^ Colonial Becords of iVo. Ca. , vol. I, 034 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist.., 66. 



436 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

not possible for the House, so near the conclusion of the 
session, to find time to examine, and therefore presumed 
to lay the petition itself before her; and could not doubt 
but that her Majesty, who had shown so great a concern 
and tenderness for all her subjects, would extend her 
compassion to her distressed people who had the misfort- 
une to be at so great a distance from her Royal person, 
and not so immediatel}^ under her geutle administration. 

The Queen thanked the House for laying these matters 
so plainly before her, expressed herself as very sensible 
of the great consequence the plantations were to England, 
and promised that she would do all in her power to relieve 
her subjects in Carolina and protect their rights. 

On the 3d of April Sir Charles Hedges, one of the 
Secretaries of State, a favorite of the Queen, whom the 
Duchess of Marlborough was now pushing out of the way 
for her son-in-law Sunderland, wrote to the Board of 
Trade referring the address of the Lords to that body, 
and desiring its opinion as to the method proper to be 
taken for the relief of her Majesty's subjects. The board, 
which, as we have seen, was ever on the alert to find 
some cause for the forfeitures of colonial charters, readily 
undertook the business and referred the papers to the 
two law officers of the Crown, the Attorney General, Sir 
Edward Northey, and the Solicitor General, Sir Simon 
Harcourt, for their opinion.^ These law officers, on the 17th 
of May, gave it as their opinion that the acts in question, 
not being consonant to reason, and being repugnant to 
the laws of England, were not warranted by the char- 

1 Lord Campbell, writing of the changes in the cabinet upon the result 
of the election of 1705, says: "Northey the Attorney General was con- 
sidered quite unequal to the post even if there had been no objection to 
his politics. . . . Harcourt the Solicitor General was a man of great tal- 
ents and of high honor." — Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. V, 100. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 437 

ter and were made without sufficient authority from the 
Crown, and therefore did not bind the inhabitants of the 
colony; that her Majesty might therefore hiwfully declare 
those laws null and void and require the Proprietors and 
Assembly of the province to abrogate them. They were 
further of the opinion that the making of such a law was 
an abuse of the power granted the Proprietors and effected 
a forfeiture. They were of opinion that her Majesty 
might proceed by scire facias in chancery on the pat- 
ents, or by quo luarranto in the Queen's Bench, "if," they 
were careful to add, "the laws were approved and confirmed 
by the present proprietors which doth not fully appear to 
have been so by the said address." This, as we shall see, 
proved to be an embarrassing point. On the 10th of June 
her Majesty, in council, directed Mr. Attorney and Mr. 
Solicitor General to inform themselves more fully upon 
what was necessary for the effectual proceeding against 
the charter by quo ivarranto. On the 13th an order of 
council was made directing the Lords Proprietors to de- 
clare the objectionable acts null and void. 

So far all had gone well with the petitioners, and the 
Board of Trade had reason to hope that the charters 
against which they had so long and so earnestly been 
contending would now be annulled. But just here two 
curious obstacles appeared to save the Proprietors' rights. 
The first was intimated by the law officers in the closing 
sentence of their opinion. It so happened that the acts 
had been nominally approved by but four of the Proprie- 
tors, of whom one, indeed, was a minor. These were Tories. 
Of the other Proprietors Archdale had protested against 
the laws. Shaftesbury was in ill health and in retirement, 
and neither his brother Maurice Ashley, who represented 
him, nor Blake, who was a minor, had had any part in the 
enactment of these measures. Were these innocent parties, 



438 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

some of whom were Whigs, to be punished for the con- 
duct of the Tory Lords Granville and Craven and Sir John 
Colleton? Were the minors Carteret and Blake and the 
invalid Shaftesbury to suffer for the conduct of others in 
Avhich they had no part? But not only so: as the law 
officers, under the orders of her Majesty in council, looked 
into the matter more fully, they began to doubt whether 
they could deal with the only parties Avho were responsi- 
ble for the objectionable measures ; for these were peers 
of the realm, and though the Whig House of Lords had 
in the rush of business at the close of a session let the 
address to her Majesty pass, it might possibly not be safe 
to take them too seriously at their word, and to do a thing 
which might affect the privileges of their order. 

Under the order of the 10th of June, the Attorney and 
Solicitor Generals reported to a Council held on the 26th 
that, though they had not sufficient material to carry on 
the prosecution to an end, they had sufficient to exhibit 
informations, and were preparing the same ; but at the 
same time they suggested to the Council whether the fil- 
ing such informations against a peer in Parliament might 
not be thought a breach of the privileges of the peerage. 
This view struck the Council, and her Majesty having 
taken it into consideration, the Council quickly changed 
their course and came to the conclusion that the House 
of Peers were the best judges of their own privileges ; 
upon which her Majesty did not think fit to give any 
further directions, and the whole matter was dropped.^ 

Upon the passage of the Church act establishing the 
five new parishes, Governor Johnson and his Council had 
empowered Mr. Thomas, who was returning to England 
on private affairs, " to make choice of five such persons 
as he should think fit, learned, pious, and laborious minis- 

1 Colonial Becords of Xo. Ca., vol. I, 640, 644 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 69. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 439 

ters of tlie church to officiate in the vacant parishes." In 
doing this Mr. Tliomas consulted the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel, and submitted what the so- 
ciety pronounced to be " a very full and satisfactory ac- 
count of the state of the church in South Carolina." 
But he drew attention to the objectionable clause of the 
act establishing the church which placed in the hands of 
lay commissioners the power of removing the clergy. 
The society referred the matter to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury and the Bishop of London, and determined to 
"put a stop to the sending ministers . . . into those parts 
till . . . fully satisfied that the . . . clauses are or shall 
be rescinded, and that the matter put into an ecclesiastical 
method." When, however, afterward Governor Johnson 
and his Council explained that the provision had been 
" made to get rid of the incendiaries, and pest of the 
church, Mr. Marston," and that had the society known 
the facts of the case, it would not have blamed them " for 
taking that or any other way to get rid of him," and that 
Mr. Boone, who in this matter was apparently so zealously 
championing the cause of the church, was " a most rigid 
dissenter," who, while pretending to defend the rights of 
the clergy, was really endeavoring to defeat the act, 
"because it established the church . . . and settled a 
maintenance on the ministers," they were evidently satis- 
iied ; fo;.' they sent back with Mr. Tliomas, in 1705, Mr. 
Thomas Hasell in the same year, and Mr. Francis Le 
Jau in 1706, before the act was repealed.^ 

Of these measures, which caused so much contention 
and discussion both at home and in England, the first, 
that requiring conformity with the Church of England 
on the part of the electors of the Commons, was a measure 
originating in the politics of the mother country, but readily 

1 Digest Soc. Prop. Gospel liecords, 13, 14, 849 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 69. 



440 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLTXA 

adopted by the churchmen in Carolina, to wrest and secure 
the control of the province from the dissenters. During the 
last fifteen years there is little doubt but that the dissenters 
had been a majority in the colony, and were the richest 
and soberest amongst them. From the arrival of Blake, 
Morton, Axtell, and their followers they had governed the 
colony ; and it was with chagrin that they saw the new 
arrivals from England and the West Indies joining with the 
Huguenots to supersede their rule. Hence the bitter oppo- 
sition to these people, whom, though like themselves exiles 
for religion's sake, they were contumeliously classing with 
negroes and the lowest of the whites. There is no evi- 
dence that the dissenters now constituted two-thirds of 
the population as asserted by Mr. Marston.^ On the 
contrary, as we have seen, those who conformed to the 
Church of England constituted very nearly one-half of 
the population ; and it is not to be assumed that all the 
non-conformists were united, differing as they did amongst 
each other. The very vehemence of their opposition 
to the French Protestants is a persuasive argument that 
they recognized that the pending union between the 
churchmen and Huguenots would constitute a governing 
majority of the colony. 

The attempt of the churchmen to secure their supremacy 
by the exclusion of the dissenters, under the test of con- 
formity to the church, was unwise, impolitic, and improper. 
But in the end it proved to be a matter of political ethics, 
not of constitutional right. The weak opinion of the 
Attorney General and Solicitor General clearly exhibits 
this. They rest their objection to the measure upon tlie 
clause of the charter requiring the laws of the province 
to be as near as may be to those of England, — an elastic 
provision, capable of indefinite contraction or expansion 

1 British Empire in Am.^ vol. I, 486. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 441 

as the purposes of party might require. Tliey find that the 
provision of the hiw of Carolina, accomplishing the purpose 
in this province, — the same that the Commons had again and 
again attempted at home, to be so contrary to the laws of 
England as to be in violation of the provision of the charter. 
And yet, at this very time. Chief Justice Holt, while hold- 
ing that slavery was so abhorrent to the laws of England 
that every slave was made free upon touching her soil, 
was upholding the slave trade in the interests of the mer- 
chants of London, and declaring negro slaves merchandise 
under the navigation acts, and salable and recoverable 
property in the colonies.^ If Attorney General Northey 
and Solicitor General Harcourt were right, that the adop- 
tion by a colony of a measure which had been over- 
whelmingly and repeatedly approved by the Commons in 
Parliament was such a departure from the law of Eng- 
land as to be a violation of its charter, wliat was to be said 
of the courts of England, then and afterwards, upholding, 
in regard to slavery, one law for the colonies and another 
for the mother country? It is not improbable that the 
law officers of the Crown began to perceive some of these 
difficulties, and were glad to abandon the controversy 
under the plea of the privilege of the peers. 

The other measure was more of a local one, — one fully 
justified by the condition of the churcli in the colonies; 
nor was it, as declared by the address of the Lords in 
extravagant language, in violation of the constitution of 
the Churcli of England. Deprivation and degradation are 
two very different matters in all ecclesiastical laws. The 
latter can only be imposed by an ecclesiastical court. The 
fo]-mer must depend upon the law of the benefice or "liv- 
ing," as a matter of property. The lay commission had 
no power to suspend, deprive, or depose a clergyman from 
1 Salkeld's lieports, 666 ; Bancroft, vol. II, 279 (ed. 1883). 



442 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

his sacred function ; but, as representing the body which 
furnished the means of living, it was authorized to inquire 
into cases of unworthiness of the support it provided. In 
the absence of a bishop or any other ecclesiastical author- 
ity, the act provided a board to hear and decide dif- 
ferences between congregations and their rectors. In 
England, proceedings of deprivation were generally had 
in the ecclesiastical courts, but these were always subject 
to the courts of common law which regulated them, and 
sentences were pronounced by the bishop with the assist- 
ance of his chancellor and dean, if their presence might be 
conveniently had. The general rule no doubt was that 
there could be no deprivation without precedent ecclesi- 
astical sentence. But the rule was by no means universal. 
There were divers statutory offences, some of nonfea- 
sance or neglect as well as others for malfeasance, and 
crimes such as failure to read the liturgy and articles and 
to make declarations against popery, improper absence, 
simony, etc., which needed no ecclesiastical sentence, but 
which ipso facto worked deprivation and loss of benefice.^ 

The Bishop of London's jurisdiction in the colonies was 
at this time questioned, as we have seen; and justly so, 
as it was ultimately held by the Privy Council in Eng- 
land.2 In Jamaica, where it was barred by statute, the 
Governor, as head of the provincial church, as the repre- 
sentative of the King of England, not only inducted 
clergymen into their rectories, but was likewise vested 
with the power of suspending clergymen for lewd and 
disorderly lives upon application of ten parishioners.^ The 

1 Burns's Ecclesiastical Laic, vol. II, 126; Dwyer's Beports, 275; 
Jacob's Law Die. Title, Deprivation. 

2 .V. Y. Col. Doc, vol. VII, 8()3. 

3 Hist. West Lidies (Bryan Edwards), vol. I, 208, mS. 

In Virginia the Governors Efi&ngham, Nicholson, and Spottswood 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 443 

Carolina act gave this power to the lay commissions in- 
stead of to the Governor. Was it not proper, there being 
no bishop in Carolina, that where the General Assembly 
was taxing this people to support and maintain the clergy, 
providing them with parsonages, glebe lands, and negroes 
to work the glebe lands, all at the expense of the public, 
some court should be provided to hear complaints against 
rectors or ministers of the several parishes, and to re- 
move or translate them for good cause ? The Governor 
in Jamaica could remove upon the application of ten 
parishioners ; under the Carolina act the application must 
be made by nine under the sanction of the vestry, an 
additional safeguard to the clergy. Was Mr. Marston to 
be allowed to meddle with this affair of the government, 
assail its members from the pulpit, comparing them to 
Korah and his rebellious brethren, and the people have 
no power to remove him ? Would not any vestry to-day 
sever the connection between their rector and their church 
for causes mentioned in the act? Do they not do so habit- 
ually? The act in question, in fact, provided a protec- 
tion to the clergyman, in that it would not allow him to 
be displaced, as he is practically to-day by the vestry, 
whenever differences arise between the congregation and 
himself. Dr. Dalcho, while maintaining that Mr. Marston 
was removed by a power having no canonical jurisdiction 
in ecclesiastical affairs, admits that " he owed his removal 
to his imprudent and litigious disposition." 

claimed to be the representatives of the King in Church and State, and 
patrons of all the parishes, also to be the representatives of the Bishop of 
London, having the disposal of the ministers and the exercise of discipline 
over the clergy, thus making the office of the commissary a nullity. Old 
Churches and Families in Virginia (Bishop Meade), vol. I, 150. 

In Maryland tlie right of induction and presentation were both cen- 
tred in the Governor alone. The commissary could only remonstrate. 
Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, vol. Ill, 178. 



444 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

But if the Carolina act was so obnoxious to the consti- 
tution of the Church of England as to be ground for a 
forfeiture of its charter, why was not that of Jamaica to 
be forfeited as well? The opinion of tlie law officer of 
the Crown could not have been sustained before the 
courts in either of the cases. It was well for the gov- 
ernment that so convenient an excuse for dropping the 
case was so easily found. 

The Queen had ordered the Proprietors to have these 
measures repealed. Her Majesty's power to do so might 
well have been questioned. But while the Proprietors, 
divided among themselves into two as distinct parties as 
the colonists themselves, had now escaped a threatened 
forfeiture of their charter, they recognized the danger of 
the continued hostile attitude of the Board of Trade and 
were well content to come out of the difficulty without 
further controversy. Instructions were sent for the repeal 
of the measures in question. And indeed it was time 
that this should have been done, for the Assembly in 
Carolina had already given way in response to the defeat 
of the Tories in England. 

The act requiring conformity to the church as a quali- 
fication of election had been passed, it will be recollected, 
by a majority of only one in a House from which several 
members were absent. In a full House some time after a 
bill liad been carried for its repeal, but was lost in the 
Upper House, and Governor Johnson had, it is said, " in 
great indignation dissolved the Commons House by the 
name of the Unsteady Assembly."^ In the election for the 
new Assembly Oldmixon states that Craven and Berkeley 
counties were so straitened by the qualifying act that they 
had not twenty men to represent them unless they would 
choose a dissenter or one unfit for the position. 

1 British Empire in Am., vol. I, 486. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 445 

Several persons were admitted as representatives from 
Colleton County in the place of those who refused to 
qualify, under a provision of the act, which upon the 
whole was perhaps its worst feature, providing that in 
such cases the candidate having the next greatest number 
of votes should be entitled to the seat. John Ash, the 
son of the dissenters' first agent to England, qualified 
himself by taking the oaths and signing their declaration, 
but was not apparently otherwise a complaisant member. 
He was soon called upon to answer for words spoken in 
derogation of the House. ^ 

Upon the opening of the General Assembly on the 6th 
of March, 1706, Governor Johnson sent in a message. As 
to the clause in the Church act relating to the twenty 
commissioners, he said, the members were aware, by the 
printed votes of the House of Lords and their address 
to her Majesty, what offence it had given. In order, 
therefore, to give full satisfaction to the Lords, the 
bishops, and the Society for Propagating the Gospel, who 
were offended by it, and in order to settle the church 
in the province by an act that might not be disturbed in 
England, he proposed to repeal all the several acts upon 
the subject and then to pass one general act establish- 
ing the church without the clause giving a power to re- 
move the clergy. All knew, he said, that the passing of 
that claus'e was to get rid of that pest of the country, Mr. 
Marston, who had been a common incendiary in the prov- 
ince, and had been the cause of differences and animosities 
between himself and the parishioners of St. Philip's, and 
that, if suffered to remain, the people generally would for- 
sake the church. He recommended, therefore, tliat there 
should be a clause in the new act disablincr Mr. Marston 
from being minister in Charles Town. He thought that 

1 MSS. Journals. 



446 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

one church was not sufficient for Colleton County and 
recommended the establisliment of another parish within its 
limits. As the main end of the act against dissenters, he 
said, was to enable the Assembly to establish the Church 
of England, so when the act he proposed was passed he 
recommended the repeal of that against the dissenters. 
" I do now propose to you," he concluded, " that upon the 
passing of the act for the security of the church as before 
proposed, I shall be ready to join you in the repealing of 
the act against the dissenters sitting in the Assembly." ^ 

The Assembly did not act immediately upon the mes- 
sage of the Governor, but took up other business, and 
passed another measure, which the dissenters declared to 
be merely for the perpetuation of the church party's power, 
and not because of the reasons assigned for its enactment. 
This act provided for the continuance of the present 
Assembly for the term of two years after its ratification, 
during the life and continuance in office of the present 
Governor, and that it should not be dissolved by any power 
or person whatsoever Avithin that time, except by the Gov- 
ernor and Council that then were. It was to continue 
likewise for eiirhteen months after the end of the adminis- 
tration of the present Governor by death or removal. 
The reason assigned for its passage was the danger of an- 
other invasion by the French and Spaniards, Avhich might 
render an election inconvenient and inexpedient, or leave 
the province without a duly organized House ; and also — 
which, indeed, was no doubt its real motive — because the 
preservation of the Church of England so happily begun 
might be endangered, if not wholly subverted and over- 
thrown, upon the election of another House. This 
attempt to prevent the exercise of the popular will was as 
futile as it was unwise ; and, as we shall see, was disre- 
1 MSS. Journals Commons. 



UNDER THE PEOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 447 

garded by the Governor and Council themselves, though 
they now approved the measure.^ 

On the 30th of November, 1706, in pursuance of Gov- 
ernor Johnson's recommendation, all acts relating to the 
church were repealed ^ and another general act upon the 
subject passed on the same day. The act of 1704 had pro- 
vided for the building of six churches, but had not laid 
out or defined the limits of the parishes. By this act the 
province was divided into ten defined parishes. The neck 
of land between Cooper and Ashley rivers was made into 
a distinct parish, to be called the parish of St. Philip's 
in Charles Town. The rest of Berkeley County was 
divided into six more parishes : one upon the southeast 
of Wando River, to be called the parisli of Christ Church ; 
one upon the neck of land between Wando and Cooper 
rivers, to be called by the name of St. Thomas's ; one upon 
the western branch of Cooper, to be called by the name of 
St. John's ; one upon Goose Creek, to be called by the 
name of St. James's, Goose Creek ; one upon the Ashley, to 
be called by the name of St. Andrew's ; one in Orange 
Quarter, for the use of the French settlement there, to be 
called by the name of the parish of St. Dennis. Colleton 
County was divided into two parishes: one on the south side 
of the Stono River, to extend to the north side of South 
Edisto, to be called by the name of St. Paul's, and the other 
on the north of St. Helen's to be called by the name of St. 
Bartholomew's. The Huguenots on the Santee had peti- 
tioned that their settlement be made a parish, and that their 
minister should have the same allowance as ministers of 
other parishes, and so that part of Craven County known as 
the French settlement on the Santee was made into a parish, 
and the church built in Jamestown in that settlement Avas 
declared to be the parish church of St. James's, Santee. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 266. 2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 282. 



448 HISTOUY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The influence of the Barbadian element in tlie province 
is noticeable in the names of these parishes. The names 
of these and those afterwards established are almost identi- 
cal with those of the parishes of Barbadoes.^ 

The act provided for the building of six churches 
and six houses for the rectors of the several parishes, and 
c£2000, raised by the imi^osition of a tax on skins and 
furs, chief articles of commerce, was appropriated for the 
purpose. This was a very large sum of money, amount- 
ing possibly to #40,000 of our present currency. Com- 
missioners were appointed to take grants of land for the 
sites of the churches and churchyards and glebes, and for 
the houses for the rectors. Three of these were Hugue- 
nots.^ The rectors Avere incorporated as in the act of 1704. 
The rector of St. Philip's was to receive X150 per annum ; 
the several other rectors ^50 each for three years and 
after three years XlOO, except the rector of St. Dennis, who 
was allowed £50 per annum. The rectors were to be chosen 
in the same manner as had been provided in the act of 
1704, that is, by the inhabitants of the several parishes who 
were of the Church of England. The rector of St. Dennis, 
Orange Quarter, and of St. James's, Santee, were allowed 
to read the service in the French tongue according to a 
translation which had been approved by the Bishop of Lon- 
don. Orange Quarter was really a part of St. Thomas's 

1 The names of the parishes in Barbadoes were : St. Michael's, St. 
Peter's, St. Thomas's, St. John's, Christ Church, St. Lucy's, St. James's, 
St. Philip's, St. Andrew's, St. George's, St. Joseph's. Ififit. of Barbadoes 
(Poyer), 116. I/ist. West Indies (Bryan Edwards), vol. I, 321. 

'^ The names of the commissioners were : Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Kn't, 
Hon. Thomas Broughton, Nicholas Trott, Robert Gibbes, Henry Noble, 
Ralph Izard, Jamos Hisbee, William Rhett, George Logan, Arthur Mid- 
dleton, David Davis, Tliomas Barton, John Abraham Motte, Robert Sea- 
brook, Hugh Hicks, John Woodward, Joseph Page, John Ashly, Richard 
Beresford, Thomas Wilkinson, Jonathan Fitch, William Bull, Bene Bave- 
neL and Philip Gendron. Those in italics were Huguenots. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 449 

Parish, but few of the inhabitants could attend the English 
Church, as they did not understand the English language, 
and most of them had been accustomed to meet together 
in a small church of their own ; as they desired, however, 
to conform to the established church, upon their application 
they were incorporated into it.^ 

It was provided by this act that in each parish seven 
vestrymen and two churchwardens should be elected on 
Easter Monday in each year, who should be required to 
be sworn to the oaths of allegiance and supremacy and to 
subscribe the test against transubstantiation. They were 
required to serve under a penalty. 

The essential benefits to the colony arising from this 
act, observes Rivers, cause us to regret the violent and 
illegal measures by which it originated. Pious and learned 
men could now be induced to come to Carolina, whenever 
their services were needed. Education and Protestant 
Christianity, he continues, are so blended that a country 
must be destitute of both, if it be long in want of either. 
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sent out 
missionaries not only to preach, but to "encourage the 
setting up of schools for the teaching of cliildren." ^ 

There is preserved in the Charleston Library a manu- 
script volume containing eight charges delivered by Chief 
Justice Trott to the General Sessions ; one of these, deliv- 
ered at this time, is upon the subject of witchcraft, and is 
a most learned and elaborate defence of the theory of the 
existence of witchcraft as a crime. While not actuall}^ 
asserting that every one that doubts the existence of 
witches must necessarily deny the existence of spirits, the 
Chief Justice makes bold to assert that they who have 
given good proof of apparitions and witches have done 

1 Humphrey's Soc. Prop. Qof^pel, 105 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 288. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 47-50 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 231. 

2 G 



450 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAllOLINA 

some service to the cause of religion ; for, he ingeniously 
argues, if there be such creatures as witches, then there 
are certainly spirits by whose aid and assistance they act, 
and by consequence there is another invisible world 
of spirits. " Now, though I am not at all inclined to 
believe," he charges the jury, " every common idle story 
of apparitions and witches neither should I have you to 
be over credulous in things of y^ nature especially when 
they come before you in a judicial manner." He goes on 
to tell the jury "yet that there are such creatures as 
witches I make no doubt ; neither do I think they can be 
denied without denying the truth of the Holy Scriptures 
or most grossly perverting them. Now," he says, " that 
the Holy Scriptures do affirm that there are witches is 
evident from so many places that might be produced out 
of them that time will not permit me to cite them to 
you." Tlie Chief Justice then proceeds to examine and 
discuss before the jury passages of Scripture upon which 
he relies for his belief, and in doing this he quotes, and 
endeavors to explain to the jury, the original Hebrew text 
of the Old Testament upon the subject. The juries must 
have been very different in those daj^s from the present 
had they been able to follow his Honor. We have no in- 
formation that any action was taken upon this charge. 
Trott was not singular in his belief at the time. Indeed, 
he was but adding his classical learning to the cliarge of 
Sir Mattliew Hale in the famous witchcraft trial at Bury 
St. Edmunds, tliirty years before, in wliich that great judge 
declared his belief that there were such creatures ; for, said 
he, the Scriptures have affirmed as much.^ At the close 
of the seventeenth century belief in witchcraft was wide- 
spread, and it continued, to a greater or less degree, for a 
hundred years after. The fanatical outbreak at Salem, 

1 State Trials, vol. VI, G47-702. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 451 

Massachusetts, in 1691-92, is one of the most striking 
incidents in the history of New England.^ The act of 
James I, c. 12, against witchcraft was one of the English 
Statutes which we shall soon see reenacted in this prov- 
ince, in 1712.2 It is said that in 1792 witches abounded 
in what is now Fairfield County in this State, and as late 
as 1813 or 1814, Stephen 1). Miller, later one of the most 
distinguished men of the State, gravely maintained the 
defence to an indictment of assault, battery, and false im- 
prisonment that an old woman, the prosecutrix, residing 
in Chesterfield had maltreated by diabolical arts a poor 
girl residing in Lancaster, and had ridden her as a horse 
from town to town.^ 

The volume of manuscript charges of Chief Justice 
Trott concludes with one in which he sentences a woman 
to be burned under the provisions of the common law, 
which holds the murder of a husband by a wife to be petty 
treason, and therefore liable to that terrible punishment. 
We have, however, no record of the case nor account of 
the execution of the sentence. We may safely assume 
that the woman was not burned. 

1 The Emancipation of Mass. (Brooks Adams), 216-236. 

2 Statutes, vol. II, 508. 

3 See a most interesting note of Dr. Thomas Cooper, editor of the 
Statutes at Large, upon this subject. Statutes, vol. II, 739-743. 



CHAPTER XX 

1706-1709 

If the Tories in England had lost their influence by 
their lukevvarmness to the war, those in Carolina, under 
the lead of Sir Nathaniel Johnson, had redeemed the char- 
acter of their party for loyalty and devotion to her 
Majesty the Queen, and to the cause of the mother coun- 
try against all lier enemies. Putting aside all party strife 
and daring, not only the united forces of the French and 
Spaniards, but the danger of pestilential disease, they had 
hastened with their fellow-colonists, in the double expo- 
sure of their lives, to the defence of the infected and 
beleaguer'ed town. They may not yet have heard of Marl- 
borough's glorious victory of Ramillies of the 23d of May ; 
but they remembered Blenheim, and as far as the opportun- 
ity and occasion had allowed in this extreme outpost of the 
kingdom, had likewise performed their duty, and added 
some fresh laurels to the glory of England of the year 
1706. They had done at least their duty — as if at 
Namur. 

But great had been the calamities of the summer. The 
yellow fever had been most fatal. Five or six deaths a 
day among the small population of the town was not an 
uncommon occurrence. Among those who died were the 
restless and ambitious Colonel James Moore, the Rev. 
Samuel Thomas, who had just returned from England, 
where we have seen him in conference with the Society 

452 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 453 

for the Propagation of the Gospel, jNIr. Job Howes, the 
Speaker of the Assembly which had passed the laws that 
had occasioned so much contention, and many other worthy 
persons of both parties. Some dissenters, not contented 
with the defeat of the measure which would have excluded 
them from the government, but objecting to the establish- 
ment of the church at all, had abandoned the colony. 

The number of the inhabitants was, nevertheless, in- 
creasing, and though most of the dissenters acquiesced in 
the establishing of the church, they renewed the struggle 
for the political control of the colony, and soon regained 
their ascendency in the Assembly. 

During the distractions of the province and the confu- 
sion spread everywhere by the war with France and Spain, 
the traders among the Indians had carried matters wdth a 
high hand ; their abuses now occasioned fresh trouble and 
alarm. Though Colonel Rhett had succeeded Howes as 
Speaker, the Governor's party lost control of the Commons, 
and the Assembly determined to remodel the whole plan 
of conducting the Indian trade. It was proposed to ap- 
point commissioners with full power, executive and judi- 
cial, to settle without delay all difficulties in that business. 
The salary of the Governor was at that time £200 ster- 
ling; but this was augmented indirectly by allowances 
derived from the management of this trade. It was now 
proposed that the customary presents from the Indians, for 
which they expected special favors, should go into the pub- 
lic treasury, and an equivalent was offered to the Governor 
in lieu of these perquisites. Sir Nathaniel demur^*ed to this 
as curtailing the only " considerable source of his income," 
and appealed to the Assembly ; were not liis services in the 
recent invasion "sufficient to excite their gratitude and 
liberality " ? But the Assembly was obdurate. Instead of 
yielding, they sent a bill for his approval to prevent tu- 



454 HISTOKV OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mults at elections, which he rejected as contrary to his 
instructions. Notwithstanding the act continuing the 
present Assembly for two years, approved by him so 
shortly before, the Governor thereupon dissolved tlie 
body.i 

At the election for a new Assembly the party in opposi- 
tion to the Governor gained complete ascendency, and at 
once elected as Speaker Thomas Smith, whom the former 
House had had in custody because of the libel of his letters 
to Ash. Mr. Marston had been continuously importuning 
the Governor and Assembly for his salary, of which he had 
been deprived ; and upon the accession to the speakership 
of his friend, Mr. Smith, for visiting whom while he was 
in the custody of the Messenger he had been arraigned 
by the House, Mr. Marston at once renewed his applica- 
tion for payment. The Governor complained that he was 
affronted "by his saucy letter" and rejected it. But the 
House heard Mr. Marston favorably, and, on the 30th of 
October, 1707, sent an address to the Governor and Coun- 
cil asking for their reasons " why Dr. Marston ought not 
to be paid according to the directions of the Church act." 
The Governor and Council replied, November 6, that they 
wondered that the Assembly should ask, " when 3^ou may 
see the reasons very plainly in the words of the ordinance, 
where, after reciting his offences, it is expressly said 
that no more money shall be paid him out of the public 
treasury until such time as by an ordinance of the General 
Assembly upon his amendment, better behavior, and sub- 
mission to the government he be restored to the same." 
That so far from any amendment or submission, " he con- 
tinued his abuses and railing constantly in his sermons, so 
that neither the Governor nor no one of those concerned 
in the government could go to church except they would 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 243. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 455 

be content to hear themselves abused ; he having his 
abusive papers, ready penned into his sermon notes, to 
make use of when he saw any one concerned in the gov- 
ernment come to church." In answer to the argument 
that Dr. Marston had officiated, they said that no one 
desired him to do so, and all would have been glad if he 
had left it alone; for it was his doing so drove them and 
others from the church. '' And therefore," continued the 
Governor and Council, "we wonder to see you repeat your 
affronts to the Governor by siding with Mr. Marston by 
which we and every one may plainly see that a person 
need have no other qualification to entitle him to your 
favor but abusing the government." They concluded by 
assuring the Assembly : " We will never give consent that 
he shall have any money paid him out of the public treas- 
ury; neither will we spend any more time and pains in 
receiving or answering any more messages relating to 
him." 1 

Having failed to reinstate Mr. Marston, and disposed 
to be quarrelsome, the Assembly next turned upon the 
Governor's two friends. Colonel Rhett and Chief Justice 
Trott. They resolved that Rhett " should no longer be sole 
commissioner for the fortifications," and requested to be 
informed how Trott obtained his position as deputy in the 
Council. They had not, they said, been officially notified 
how Nicholas Trott, of London, had become Proprietor. 
Governor Johnson replied informing them that Claren- 
don's Proprietary share had been assigned to Sothell, and 
upon his death the Proprietors had assigned it to Amy, 
and that Amy had assigned it as a portion for his 
daughter upon her marriage with Nicholas Trott, of 
London, a cousin of the Chief Justice, whom he had 
appointed his deputy. The Commons were not satisfied. 
iPalcho's Ch. Hist., 09-72. 



456 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Indeed, they had probably been instigated from London 
to raise this question. Tiiey desired proof that the other 
Proprietors had sanctioned the claim of Mr. Trott of 
London, and dechired the Chief Justice ''an unfit man 
for any public commission or office." ^ 

Without consulting the Governor, and in manifest 
disrespect to him, the Assembly sent Mr. Berresford under 
their authority to the Savannah Indians. The Governor 
and Council resented this as an additional slight and 
interference with their prerogatives, as they alone had 
power to make peace or Avar. Pursuing the same hostile 
course, the House renewed the question as to their right 
to elect a Receiver of the public money. James Moore, 
the Receiver, had died the summer before, and the 
Assembly now claimed the right to elect his successor, as 
they had ineffectually attempted before on the death of 
Mr. Ely. If the Proprietors or other deputies, said the}^ 
claim to appoint this officer under the charter, they can as 
well claim to appoint the Speaker of the Assembly. Was 
it not strange, they asked, that the greater power of 
disposing of the public money was in the people, and the 
lesser power, incidental to it, of choosing the Receiver 
of the money, should be denied them? They proceeded 
to nominate Colonel George Logan for the office. The 
Governor objected, but the House persisted and unani- 
mously elected him.^ 

The Board of Trade in England had eagerly listened 
to the mission of Mr. Boone as opening the way to a 
subversion of the Proprietors' charter and the establish- 
ment of an immediate Royal Government, and in so doing 
had given a new vent to the discontent with the Pro- 
prietors and their Governor and Council. The opposition 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 244. 
^ Ibid., 245. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 457 

party, which had now the control of the Commons in 
South Carolina, at once availed themselves of this new 
opening to the ear of the Royal Government. They 
appointed a committee on grievances and sent their report 
to the Queen. They also prepared specific charges against 
Trott, and desired the Governor and Council to dis^^lace 
him from his office of Judge and asked that he be brought 
to trial before a court. " The whole body of the people," 
said they, " have such an aversion against him upon just 
grounds that they wiU. neither hurry their actions nor 
serve as jurymen until he be either punished or legally 
cleared of what is laid against him." The Governor 
refused to remove Trott, as such an action on his part 
would be unprecedented and contrary to law. The 
House should impeach him before the Council. This the 
House refused to do ; while Trott, on the other hand, 
dechired that he could only be tried in England before the 
Proprietors from whom he held his commission.^ 

Had the condition of the province permitted it. Gov- 
ernor Johnson would long since have dissolved this refrac- 
tory House of Representatives. But a threat of invasion 
by the Savannah Indians obliged him to reconvene them. 
Upon their assembling, he requested that, before proceed- 
ing to business, they would rescind from their journals 
the complaints against liimself. To this request they an- 
swered they did not consider themselves legally convened, 
because Trott's name on the proclamation just completed 
a quorum of the Council, and they did not recognize him 
as a deputy. The inconsistency of this position is ap- 
parent ; for, if not properly convened, they constituted no 
legal body to be sitting receiving and sending messages. 
But standing upon this point, it was with difficulty that 
the Assembly could be brought to the consideration of the 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 245. 



458 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

exigencies of the province, and induced to enable the Gov- 
ernor to organize a force against the public enemies, and 
to raise money for its support.^ 

Thomas Smith, the present Speaker, had been arrested 
by the previous House, and taken into custody of the 
Messenger for libelling that body. The tables were now 
turned, and he was avenged. Colonel Risbee, a member 
of that House, the author of the bill against dissenters, 
was brought to the bar, before Smith as Speaker, on a 
charge of vilifying the present Assembly while over liis 
bottle of wine in a tavern.^ 

The Governor saw that a compromise was necessary to 
allay the increasing excitement. Logan, having declined 
the office so that no personal objection to himself miglit 
embarrass the Assembly, the Governor yielded on his part, 
and approved an act which asserted the right of the House 
to elect the Receiver. The Assembly then agreed to allow 
the Governor .£400 for relinquishing the Indian perquisites, 
besides ^£100 per annum, and at length sufficient harmony 
was restored for proceeding with enactments which the 
public interests demanded.^ 

At the next election the Governor's party regained their 
control. The new Assembly was organized with Colonel 
Risbee as Speaker. But changes had taken place in Eng- 
land which allowed his Excellency but a short enjoyment 
of his restored power. Lord Granville was dead, and 
was succeeded as Palatine by William Lord Craven ; * the 
Board of Proprietors was reorganized, and turned against 
him. 

1 Hist. Sketches of So.Ca. (Rivers), 246 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 
320-324. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 246. 

3 Ibid., 240 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 305-311. 

4 Coll. Hist. Soc of So. Ca., vol. 1, 153, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 459 

The board, as now composed, consisted of William Lord 
Craven, who represented also the minor Lord Carteret, Sir 
John Colleton, Maurice Ashley, who represented also the 
minor Joseph Blake, and John Archdale. The share of 
the late Lord Granville was not represented, and Trott 
(who claimed not only the Clarendon-Sothell share, but 
that also originally of Sir William Berkeley, which Arch- 
dale was now admitted to represent) was not recognized 
at all by the other Proprietors. The board thus consti- 
tuted was reduced practically to but four members, — Lord 
Craven, Sir John Colleton, Maurice Ashley, and John Arch- 
dale. But Trott would not tamel}^ submit to his exclusion. 
He instituted proceedings in chancery. It was upon this 
that the move was made in the Assembly in South Caro- 
lina against the deputation of his cousin, the Chief Justice, 
as his representative in the Council. 

Trott's case was this : Thomas Amy, it will be recol- 
lected, had acted as the agent in procuring immigrants for 
the colony, and liad been made use of as a trustee for them 
when they bought the share of Sir William Berkeley. 
This trusteeship they had changed without his consent or 
release, and had sold the share to Thomas Archdale with- 
out his concurrence or his joining in the conveyance. 
The legal title to the share, therefore, it was claimed, re- 
mained in Amy and this claim was really never confuted. 
The Proprietors had, however, in the place of that share, 
assigned to Amy the share late of Sothell, which they had 
sequestered; and Amy had settled it upon his daughter as a 
portion when she married Trott. Thomas Amy died Sep- 
tember 21, 1704. And upon his death, Trott, very probably 
at the suggestion of his kinsman the Chief Justice of Caro- 
lina, set up a claim, not only to the Sothell share which had 
been settled upon his wife, but also to a considerable sum 
alleged to have been advanced by Amy wliile he was acting 



460 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

as the agent of the Proprietors — a sum ascertained by the 
courts to amount with interest to X2538 llsSd. For this 
sum he chiimecl that the heirs of Amy, i.e. his wife, Ann Trott, 
and her sister, Elizabeth Moore, were entitled to hold the 
lesral title of the share which had been sold to Archdale with- 
out Amy's concurrence or without his joining in the con- 
veyance. This contention of Trott we shall see sustained 
by the decree of the Lord Chancellor Macclesfield, but 
afterwards reversed by the House of Lords ; ^ that body 
still, however, recognizing that the legal title was yet in 
the heirs at law of Amy. 

John Archdale, on the 22d of October, 1708, conveyed 
the share in dispute, the title to which he held, — that origi- 
nall}^ of Sir William Berkeley, — to his son-in-law, John 
Danson, for X200. But before doing so he avenged his 
party upon Sir Nathaniel Johnson, " whose chymical wit," 
he charged, had transmuted the civil differences in the 
colony into a religious controversy.^ The Clarendon- 
Sothell share, meanwhile, was not represented. 

The late Palatine, says Hewatt, from a mixture of spirit- 
ual and political pride, despised all dissenters as the ene- 
mies of both hierarchy and monarchy, and believed the 
State could only be secure while the civil authority was 
lodofed in the hands of Hig^h Churchmen. Lord Craven 
did not possess the same proud and intolerant spirit ; he 
considered that those Carolinians who maintained liberty 
of conscience merited greater indulgences from them, and 
though a friend to the Church of England, he doubted 
whether the minds of the people were ripe for the intro- 
duction of that establishment. He therefore urged lenity 
and toleration.^ 

1 Trott V. Danson, 3 Brown's Pari. Cases, 449 ; 1 Perre Williams, 780. 

2 Bi'itish Empire in Am., vol. I, 483. 

3 Ilewatt's Jlist. of So. Ga., vol. I, 195. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 461 

Governor Johnson was now assailed through Archdale's 
influence from both colonies ; from North as well as from 
South Carolina. By his commission, Sir Nathaniel was 
Governor of both South and North Carolina, with power 
to appoint a Deputy Governor in either. Under this 
power he had appointed Colonel Robert Daniel Deputy 
Governor of North Carolina, while he personally adminis- 
tered the government of South Carolina. Governor Daniel 
had succeeded in establishing the church in his colony; 
but had not attempted a disfranchisement of the non- 
conformist.^ But the Quakers, who were very numerous 
in North Carolina, had refused to take the new oaths pre- 
scribed by Parliament in the first year of Queen Anne 
(1704), and were consequently dismissed from the Council, 
Assembly, and courts of justice. This so nettled them 
that, in 1706, they sent one John Porter to England with 
fresh grievances and complaints against Sir Nathaniel and 
his deputy. Colonel Daniel,^ and succeeded in prevailing 
upon the Proprietors to order Johnson to remove Daniel, 
and to appoint another Deputy Governor.^ 

Mr. Boone had been much elated by his success with 
the Board of Trade and the Whig House of Lords against 
the measures of Sir Nathaniel in South Carolina, and now 
that Lord Granville was dead, and the dissenters in the as- 
cendency among the Proprietors, nothing but the disgrace 
of the Governor would appease the indignity with which 
he conceived himself to have been treated by the board 
under the late Palatine. He presented another petition 
to the Lords Proprietors, charging the Governor with 
crimes against the civil and religious interests of the 
province.* He charged that the "province was in great 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., 1 vol., Preface (\V. L. Saunders). 

2 Ibid, 708. 3 Hawks's Hist, of Vo. (7a., vol. II, 508. 
* Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 82. 



462 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

danger of being brought into a ruinous condition if not 
absolutely lost, and falling into the hands of the French 
by the present evil administration of the government there." 
With feigned devotion he declared that the Fundamental 
Constitutions — the same aristocratic Constitutions whicli 
the people had been resisting since the foundation of the 
province, and which themselves established the Church of 
England, but which he novv^ described as " calculated with 
great wisdom and temper suitable to the different persuasion 
of christians about religious matters" — had been of late 
very much violated. That " thereby," i.e. by the violation 
of the Constitutions, " the inhabitants had been so divided, 
and such animosities raised amongst them, as have been 
the frequent occasion of riots and tumults in which several 
of the inhabitants had been in danger of losing their lives." 

The inhabitants had hoped, he said, that the province 
would have been restored to its former peace and tran- 
quillity when tlie two unreasonable acts of Assembly were 
repealed by her Majesty's authority, pursuant to an address 
of the Lords in Parliament ; but, contrary to their expecta- 
tions, the Governor of the province had dissolved the 
Assembly because he was informed they had prepared 
an address to her Majesty, and another to the Lords to 
testify their thankful sense of her Majesty's goodness in 
repealing those acts and the care of the peers in asserting 
their rights. 

Then came a repetition of the old story that the elec- 
tions had been managed with such partiality and injustice 
that " all sorts of people, even negroes, alien jews and com- 
mon sailors had been admitted to vote in such elections." 
That to prevent this an act had been passed by both 
Houses of Assembly, but the Governor had refused to 
assent to it. Mr. Boone omitted, however, to mention that 
the reason assigned by the Governor for his so doing was 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 468 

that the provisions of the act were contrary to his instruc- 
tions. 

A dangerous act had been passed — he went on to say 
— to continue an Assembly for two years absolutely, and 
for eighteen months after the death or removal of the Gov- 
ernor, unless the Governor should think fit to dissolve it 
sooner, whereby the very foundations of the people's free- 
dom was absolutely struck at, and the province deprived 
of the only method they had to restore its first liberty. 
Again, Mr. Boone omitted to mention that the Governor, 
as we have seen, had in fact dissolved the Assembly, so 
that the objectionable act was at an end. The act was still 
made to do a turn, — to show how wicked Sir Nathaniel 
had been in assenting to it. 

The Indian nations in the neighborhood of the province, 
Mr. Boone stated, had been so inhumanly treated that 
they were in great danger of revolting to the French, 
who were continually tempting them, whereby the prov- 
ince would be infallibly ruined ; that the Governor, though 
admitting the danger, had refused to consent to an act 
upon the subject because it would take away a great part 
of his private profit ; nor could he be prevailed upon to 
consent to it until he had in a shameful manner forced 
the Assembly to give him the sum of X400 and to settle 
£100 on him and on all succeeding Governors, which Mr. 
Boone alleged was a corruption beyond example. Then, 
changing the subject of his complaint from the Governor 
to Trott, justice, Mr. Boone charged, was very corruptly 
and partially administered by the present Chief Justice, 
who had several offices to himself which ought to be in 
different hands ; that the Chief Justice had been guilty of 
very arbitrary proceedings by illegally imprisoning some of 
the best inhabitants, by refusing the presentation of grand 
juries, by countenancing riots, by taking upon himself 



464 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

to exercise ecclesiastical authority and arbitrarily depriv- 
ing an established minister of the Church of England 
of his living, and with treating some of the best inhabi- 
tants with scandalous and " revilious " language in open 
court. Mr. Boone stated that he had been threatened to 
be severely used if he should return to his estate and 
family in the province, only because he had come to Eng- 
land to represent the deplorable condition of the province. 
That those who had the power in the province had re- 
fused the public seal to be afifixed to such papers as would 
make the evidences of all the grievances of the province 
more authentic, and to render it more difficult for the 
petitioner to make out his case. That he had forborne 
making any further application to her Majesty or the Par- 
liament for redress of grievances, in the hopes that their 
Lordships would be pleased to provide speedy relief. 

"Wherefore," continued Mr. Boone, "3^our petitioner 
most humbly prays that your Lordships would be pleased 
to take the calamitous state of the said province into your 
consideration, and to put the administration of the govern- 
ment there, upon such an equal foot as may be agreeable 
to the Royal charter by which it is held, and the Funda- 
mental Constitutions established by your Predecessors, 
which encouraged some of the best inhabitants to trans- 
port themselves and families thither, and which while 
they were duly observed, increased the number of its 
inhabitants, and made trade to flourish and all the people 
there to live happy and easy."^ 

The position of the dissenters, as represented by Mr. 
Boone in England, was most inconsistent and insincere. 
While flattering the pride of the Proprietors in their 
Fundamental Constitutions, asserting against the well- 
known facts that the people had acquiesced in them and 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 82-84. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 465 

flourished under their provisions, he was at the same time 
invoking the hostility of the Board of Trade to overthrow 
the charter which he was praising to the Proprietors. 
The purpose of his mission to England was to prevent 
the establishment of the church, and yet we find him 
arguing that the ecclesiastical government of the colony 
was under the Bishop of London, and declaring that the 
interference of laymen in church affairs was held in de- 
testation and abhorrence in the colony. Demanding free- 
dom of conscience for the people he represented and 
claiming that the guarantee of it under the charter car- 
ried with it the right of the elective franchise, he was 
indignantly resenting the extension of that right to the 
French Protestants who had settled in the province. Mr. 
Boone was, nevertheless, listened to and the removal of 
Governor Johnson determined upon. 

Governor Johnson was not apprised of these movements 
against him, and only learned of them when the notice of 
his removal was received. It was not until April 9, 1709, 
that the Proprietors wrote to the Assembly notifying 
them of the appointments of Colonel Edward Tynte as 
Governor; Colonel Robert Gibbes as Chief Justice ; William 
Sanders, Esq., Attorney General ; Henry Wiggington, 
Secretary ; Nathaniel Sale, Esq., son of Governor William 
Sale, Receiver General ; and Edward Hyme, Esq., to be 
Naval officer. A postscript stated that the Duke of Beaufort 
was legally invested in the proprietorship of the late Lord 
Granville, and John Danson in that of John Archdale.^ 

Upon the reconvening of the Assembl}^ October 20, 1709, 
Governor Johnson thus addressed that body : ^ — 

"You all know that the Gentleman who is to succeed me is ex 
pected in every day, and my utmost ambition when T resign the gov- 

1 Coll. Hist. Son. of So. Cn., vol. I, 160. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 80. 
2h 



466 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ernment is, only to carry with me an unsullied reputation, and the 
character of having acquitted myself worthy of the trust committed 
to me; and though I may from the justice of this present assembly 
promise myself that advantage yet my satisfaction will be imperfect 
while Mr. Boone's libel against me to the Lords Proprietors remains 
unanswered, and which their Lordships have been pleased to send 
me, in order to acquit myself from the imputations it contains. 

" It is that infamous Libel, Gentlemen, that I desire to lay before 
you wherein Mr. Boone most unfairly, when there was no person to 
appear or answer for me, endeavoured to traduce me to her Majesty, 
and the Lords Proprietors, and though I could in a less public manner 
assert my innocence and confute the slanders and reflections therein 
fixed on me, yet I choose this way not only that I may act with less 
partiality but that (if I appear to be slandered) I may receive such a 
public justification as will be sufficient to vindicate my past actions 
in the government, and confound njy accusers, and herein it is my 
peculiar happiness that I do not appeal to persons unacquainted with 
my transactions in the government but to men who (for the nuijor 
part) have been privy to my administration, and witnesses of all my 
actions both in Church and State. 

" It must not at the same time be denied, but that as a man, and 
a man ahnost worn out with sickness and old age, I have had my 
infirmities and stood in need of a little indulgence, and probably some 
of liiy most zealous designs for the good of the province had not the 
designed success, but let me find no favour or excuse of any person, if 
I am found by your strictest scrutiny to have endeavoured the betray- 
ing this province to the French, involving you in a war with our 
friendly Indians, or any other enormous crimes raked together and 
penned in a style as inveterate as malice and envy could in the most 
bitter words be suggested or expressed. 

" I do therefore. Gentlemen, conjure you, as each of you respect 
your particular honour and reputation to do me justice in this affair. 

" The Libel or his Petition as he is pleased to call it I herewith 
lay before you. Please send for Mr. Boone and oblige him, if he can, 
to prove and make good the crimes he has therein laid to my charge, 
and give me leave to answer whatever he shall affirm before you, and 
upon the whole draw up such a report as shall be agreeable to the 
honour and justice of your House. If I am not innocent let me bear 
the guilt under the disadvantage of having it declared so by you. 
But if it appears, the gentleman has undeservedly abused me, let my 
justification be as public ; that it may be recorded in the journals of 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 467 

your House, be transmitted home to their Lordships to obviate any 
impressions taken to my disadvantage." 

The Commons, who were now entirely in the interest of 
the Governor, sent for Mr. Boone, who, notwithstanding 
the warning he dechirecl to have received, iiad returned 
home to appear before them and make good the chai'ges 
he had presented in his petition to the Proprietors. They 
framed questions to be propounded to him. (1) Did he 
own to the petition ? (2) Wlien he was in Enghxnd how 
came he to know that this province was in great danger 
(as set forth) of falling into the hands of the French 
and Spaniards, by the ill administration of the Governor ? 
(3) To inform the House what constitutions were in force 
by laws of the province ? (4) How he made out that the 
Governor had no other reason to dissolve the Assembly 
than the reason he set forth in his petition ? (5) How 
he made out that the act for continuing an Assembly for 
two years, etc., was thought proper for the Governor's 
arbitrary purposes; and so destructive to the people's 
freedom ? (6) Which of the most considerable free- 
holders and merchants had sent him to the Lords Pro- 
prietors ? (7) Which and what elections had been invaded 
and managed with partiality ? (8) By whom had the 
Indians been inhumanly treated and abused ? ^ 

Mr. Boone refused to submit himself to this examination. 
He first claimed exemption as deputy of the infant Pro- 
prietor Blake, but the other deputies refused to recognize 
him as such deputy. Upon this he left the town, and 
escaped the Messenger of the House sent to bring him 
before that body. 

Mr. Boone having escaped their examination, the Assem- 
bly thus addressed the Governor : ^ — 

1 MSS. Commona Journal, October 29, 1709. 

2Ualchu's Ch. Hist., 85. 



468 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

" We the Coiiimons now met at Charles Town do return your 
Honour our sincere and hearty thanks for that excellent Speech you 
made, and delivered to us, at the opening of this present Session, and 
are truly sensible of your Honour's paternal care over this province 
during the whole course of your government ; and notwithstanding 
the infirmities of age and sickness, your zeal for the public good in 
Church and State hath surmounted your particular ease and tranquil- 
lity, and you have undergone the fatigue with such cheerfulness and 
presence of mind, that it hath highly encouraged the inhabitants of 
this Colony to follow your good and well grounded examples and reso- 
lutions and cheerfully to undergo the troubles and expenses they have 
been at, in order to defend themselves against the common enemy 
now in this time of war. But when we come to that part of your 
Honour's Speech wherein you are pleased to give us an account of your 
Honour's being shortly to resign the government, it strikes us with the 
greatest concern and sorrow for the approaching loss of so good a 
Governor, and with the greatest wonder to know the reason of such 
a change, the administration of your government being always just 
and easy, and all your actions tending to the good of this Colony, so 
that when the government shall come to be out of your hands, we 
shall (with much sorrow) look upon it to be the greatest loss that 
could happen to this thriving Colony. In the next place we cannot 
but take notice of that false and scandalous Petition to the Proprietors 
of this Colony wherein there has been so much pains taken to set forth 
your Honour's actions in the blackest and bitterest manner ; and do 
assure jT-our Honour that we will use our utmost endeavor to know the 
truth of that petition by examining the author of it, and doubt not 
but to find it so false in every respect as to cause us to proclaim your 
Honour innocent by a vote of our House and that future ages may see 
that what is therein contained is false, give it room to be entered as 
such in the journals of our House. 

" We do therefore with all due respect render and return our grateful 
acknowledgments as well for what service your Honour hath already 
rendered this Colony, and for your earnest desire to settle the Church of 
England as now by law established, and also for the assurance you are 
pleased to give us of continuing your provident care in promoting the 
good of this Colony when you shall be out of the government." 

Oil November 5, the Assembly also addressed the Lords 
Proprietors : ^ — 

iDalcho's C7i. ifis^., 87. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 469 

" We your Lords most Obedient and dutiful servants, the Com- 
mons, at this present Assembly convened, have the freedom and 
liberty to acquaint your Lordships that at the opening of this Session 
the Right Hon : Sir Nathaniel Johnson Kn*, Governor of this your 
Lordships Province recommended to us in his Speech amongst other 
things, the examination of a certain petition or memorial said to be 
lately presented to your Lordships by Mr. Joseph Boone against 
him requesting our strictest scrutiny therein, and such report 
thereof as should be agreeable to truth, and the Honour and Justice 
of a House of Commons. Accordingly (may it please your Lord- 
ships) we have taken the subject of that Petition into due considera- 
tion and though by the certainty of our own experience and 
knowledge we can and do from our consciences acquit our Excellent 
Governor of the maladministration thereby charged on him, yet 
to pursue the fairness of his request and to take off all umbrages 
of partiality in the proceeding, but more especially to disabuse your 
Lordships and vindicate the injured character and reputation of Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson we Resolved to send for Mr. Joseph Boone and 
to examine him before a Grand committee of our whole House on 
the particulars of that Petition, and to that end framed a previous 
draft of the most pertinent questions to ask him, intending him all 
necessary countenance and liberty to prove and make good his 
charge. 

" But (my Lords) before matters were brought to this conclusion 
Mr. Boone (by some means unknown to us) coming to the know- 
ledge of our design and being conscious of his own guilt and inability 
to maintain his accusation, made an interest (as we understand) with 
Madam Blake (the young Proprietor Blake's mother) to be appointed 
his representative in Council thereby to shelter himself from our 
House, and avoid the examination ; for when our messenger required 
his attendance before us and gave him notice of our Resolutions he 
answered him that he would not appear before us, because it inter- 
fered with his privilege and the honour of the Upper House. And 
when afterwards (by an express answer of your Loi'dsliips Deputies) 
we were assured that he was not a member of that honourable number 
or admitted amongst them through the defect of some necessary quali- 
fications we again sent for liim, he most industriously avoided both 
our messenger, and his own house at Charles Town, and imme- 
diately by a hasty retreat or rather flight into the country made it 
impossible ever since either to see or speak with him. Whereupon 
we voted Mr. Boone's refusing to appear before us to be a contem])t 



470 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the authority of our House and ordered our messenger to take 
him into custody to answer tliat contempt at the Bar of our House. 
And because he declined to prove and make good before us, the 
articles in his Petition charged against Sir Nathaniel Johnson we 
have voted that Petition or Memorial which the said Boone pre- 
sented to your Lordships to be false and scandalous, tending to cre- 
ate much jealousy and difference amongst the inhabitants of this 
Colony, and highly dishonourable to our governor. And in order to 
give your Lordships a more particular and nearer view herein, we 
have caused exact copies of the whole proceedings to be annexed to 
and accompany this address. This (my Lords) is all we apprehend 
necessary to be done in this affair at this time, and which we humbly 
submit to your Lordships judgment and consideration, professing to 
your Lordships not only that Sir Nathaniel Johnson in that scandal- 
ous Petition of Mr, Boone's is most falsely and barbarously traduced, 
but that we are all satisfied with his mild and easy government, and 
fully convinced that (under God) we owe the preservation of our 
lives and interests in this province to his personal courage, conduct 
and excellent administration. And at the same time acknowledge 
to your Lordships the great favour you have done us, not only in 
appointing so worthy a person for our governor (and that at a time 
when our circumstances stood in need of a soldier of his ability and 
experience) but also for continuing his authority so long amongst 
us ; in the whole course of whose judicious management. Your Lord- 
ships privileges, and our rights were so well secured and so dis- 
creetly tempered that they mutually supporting each other were both 
preserved. 

"This my Lords, and a great deal more (in common justice and 
gratuity) we owe and shall be ever ready to pay to the memory of 
Sir Nathaniel Johnson, and hope it will never be in the power of any 
ill meaning nuilignant persons to impress your Lordships to his dis- 
advantage." 

This address was signed by James Risbee, Speaker. 

The necessity of some Episcopal supervision over the 
clergy sent to America was pressing in all the colonies.^ 
The need of a bishop was urged by the missionaries of 
tlie Society for the Propagation of the Gospel upon their 
first arrival. They appealed for " a suffi-agan to visit the 
1 Anderson's History of the Colonial Church, vol. IH, 70-75. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 471 

several churches ; ordain some, confirm others, and bless 
all." Governor Nicholson, then Governor of Virginia, 
whose interest in the church was undoubted, expressed in 
a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury his conviction 
" that unless a bishop be sent in a short time the Church 
of England will rather diminish than increase in North 
America." Dean Swift sought to avail himself of this 
sentiment, and was intriguing for " the bishoprick of 
Virginia." ^ The claim of the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
London appears to have been one of the obstacles in the 
way of the appointment of a bishop in the colonies.^ This 
jurisdiction the Bishop of London exercised to a very 
limited extent in some of the colonies by the appointment 
of presbyters as assistants, known to the Church of Eng- 
land as commissaries.^ But tliese officers could exercise no 
other than administrative functions. The}^ had the over- 
sight of the clergy and people, but could not consecrate, or- 
dain, or confirm. Two very able men occupied the position, 
one in Virginia and the other in Maryland. In the former 
was James Blair, the founder of the William and Mary 
College, and in the latter was Dr. Thomas Bray. In ac- 
cepting the appointment, which he did at no little social 
and pecuniary sacrifice. Dr. Bray made as a condition the 
provision of parochial libraries for the ministers who 

1 Swift's works (Scott's ed.), vol. I, 98; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 90; Hist. 
Am. Episcopal Ch., vol. I, 398. 

■^ Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch., vol. I, 399. 

3 The commissary was an officer in the Church of England whose office 
was probably derived from the chorepiscopi of the ancient church. These 
were supposed to be mere presbyters, assistants to the bishops whose dio- 
ceses were enlarged by the conversion of the Pagans in the country. 
Bingham, Antiq., vol. I, 56. Commissary is a title of jurisdiction per- 
taining to him that exerciseth ecclesiastical jurisdiction in places of the 
diocese so far distant that the chancellor cannot call the people to the 
bisliop's principal consistory court without great trouble to them. Burns's 
Ecclesiastical Law, vol. II, 7. 



472 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

should be sent out to the province. It was by means of 
this provision that he hoped to be able to secure from 
among the unbeneficed and poorer clergy studious and 
sober men to undertake the service of the church in 
America.^ The establishment of these libraries was not 
confined to Maryland, but, as we have seen, books were 
sent to South Carolina, as well as to other provinces. It 
was upon one of these parochial libraries of Dr. Bray that 
the Provincial Library was founded in 1698, a lay library 
being added thereto, as before stated. 

The cliurch having been now established with eight 
clergymen resident in the province,^ ten parishes laid out, 
and six more churches provided to be built under the 
act of 1706, the Bishop of London determined to appoint 
and send out a commissary for South Carolina. In 1707 
the Rev. Gideon Johnson, A.M., was recommended to the 
Bishop of London as worthy of his appointment by the 
Archbishop of Dublin, and others. Tlie Bishop of London, 
satisfied with the character and attainments of Mr. John- 
son, appointed him his commissary and sent him to Charles 
Town. The Lords Proprietors wrote, on March 2, 1707- 
1708, informing the Governor of the appointment, that 
Mr. Johnson had sailed, and they hoped that according 
to the Lord Bishop's recommendation he had been chosen 
minister for Charles Town. 

After a tedious passage Mr. Johnson arrived off the 
harbor; but the ship not being able to cross until a suc- 
ceeding tide, the commissary, impatient of the delay and 
anxious to reach his charge, ventured in a small sloop 
with three other passengers to proceed to town. It 

1 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch. (Bishop Perry), vol. I, 138. 

2 These were the Reverends Atkin Williamson, Edward Marston, 
William Corbin, Philip de Richbourg, M. de La Pierre, Thomas Hasell, 
Richard Marsden, and Francis Le Jau. Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 432. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVEliNMENT 473 

happened that soon after leaving the ship, a sudden 
squall drove the sloop ashore upon '' a sandy island," ^ 
where they remained, it is said, twelve days before they 
were discovered by the boats sent to their relief.^ The 
ship, waiting for a tide to cross, did not reach the town for 
some days after. Wlien it was learned, upon her arrival, 
that Mr. Johnson had attempted to reach the city, and 
had not done so, sloops, boats, and canoes were sent in 
search of the missing clergjnnan. In the meanwhile, the 
party had suffered miserably for the want of slielter and 
food. One of them, a sailor, attempting to swim to the 
mainland was drowned ; Mr. Johnson's health, which was 
not strong, was seriously injured by the exposure. 

Disheartened and discouraged by this untoward entrance 
upon his work, and finding, as soon as he was able to 
exert himself, that a party had been raised by one Richard 
Marsden, who had imposed himself upon the people as a 
clergyman in good standing, to keep him out of his 
promised benefice ; denied an entrance into his " parsonage 
house," finding, as he alleged, no respect paid to his offi- 
cial character, nor to the pledges and promises made to him 
by the authorities, both of Church and State, at home, — 
the good man in despair wrote to the " Great Bishop" who 
had sent him and with whom lie corresponded: "I never 
repented so much of anything, my sins only excepted, as 
my coming' to this place, nor has any man been treated 
with less humanity and compassion considering how much 
I had suffered in my passage than I have since my arrival 
in it." 3 

^ This we suppose to have been Morris Island. Had it been Sullivan's 
Island, the name would probably have been given, as it was then well 
established. 

2 Dalcho gives the time of their detention on the island as but two 
days, — which is the more probable. Kut Bishop Perry quotes the letter 
as given in the text. 

'^ Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch., vol. I, 378. 



474 HISTUKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Mr. Johnson arrived in the midst of the contentions over 
the church acts. In feeble health, with a large family, he 
found the cost of living in the province greater, he com- 
plained, than in England or Ireland, and for this his stipend 
was insufficient. But above all he was distressed at the 
factious opposition at the hands of a brother clergyman. 
This last difficulty was, however, soon overcome and 
Mr. Johnson was duly installed as rector of St. Philip's 
Church. It has been said that Commissar}^ Johnson's 
liumility and prudence softened the asperity of opposing 
interests in the colony, and that ultimately his piety pro- 
cured him the love and esteem of all.^ But ]Mr. Johnson's 
private letters to the authorities in England, since come 
to light, scarcely sustain this character. It is fortunate 
that the people over whom he came to minister did not 
know of the impression he had formed and of the opinion 
of them he had hastened to express upon his first arrival. 
He wrote to the Bishop of London : ^ — 

" The people here generally speaking are the vilest race of men 
upon the earth. They have neither honor, nor honesty, nor religion 
enough to entitle them to any tolerable character, being a perfect 
medley or hotch-potch, made np of bankrupt pirates, decayed liber- 
tines, secretaries and enthusiasts of all sorts who have transported 
themselves hither from Bermudas, Jamaica, Barbadoes, INIontserat, 
Antego, Nevis, New England, Pennsylvania, etc., and are the most 
factious and seditious people in the whole world. Many of those that 
pretend to be churchmen are strongly crippled in their goings between 
the Church and Presbytery, and as they are of large and loose prin- 
ciples so they live and act accordingly sometimes going openly with 
the Dissenters, as they now do against the church, and giving incredible 
trouble to the Governor and clergy." 

This letter scarcely breathes a spirit of humility or 
Christian charity, and even allowing, as we should do, for 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 79. 

2 Hist. Am. Episcopal Ch. , vol. I, 379. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 475 

the untoward events of his arrival, there is a -bitterness 
and contempt in it scarcely compatible with the character 
of meekness and lovingkindness which should adorn one 
of his profession. Like Marston, too, it appears that he 
opposed and criticised the government, even when admin- 
istered by so good a Governor as Craven. In a letter from 
Carolina in 1715, supposed to have been written by George 
Rodd, Attorney General, the writer declares his surprise 
that the Lords Proprietors should favor that person (Par- 
son Johnson) with the most valuable place under their 
donation " that openly & daily affronts and writes against 
the gov." ^ The letter to the Bishop of London would, 
no doubt, have been pronounced a libel by either 
party which for the time happened to be in control, 
and such, indeed, it was. Smith, or Risbee either, would 
have summoned the reverend gentleman before the bar 
of the House, to answer for its aspersions, had it fallen into 
his hands. There was, nevertheless, a grain of truth in 
the description of the people. They were " medley or 
hotch-potch." There were very probably persons of each 
of the classes described. There was a large leaven of the 
old Puritan factiousness ; and there were without doubt 
many churchmen whose religion was more a matter of 
politics and association than of earnest conviction. 
There were probably many characteristics of a newly 
formed community of bold, restless, adventurous men, who 
had thrown off the restraints and decorum of an old 
society, and had not yet formed another. Deference was 
not likely one of their common graces. But the people 
generally were not by any means such as Mr. Johnson 
in the bitterness of his spirit represented them. There 
were many earnest Christian men in the colony, Puri- 

1 Coll. IliM. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 223 ; Public Becords ; Year Book 
City of Charleston (Ficken), 1894, 321. 



476 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tan as well as churchmen. If, as he complained, some 
of the churchmen were "so strangely crippled in their 
goings between the Church and Presbytery," was it to be 
wondered at when there was no bishop in America to con- 
firm? When Marsden's orders were denied, and Marston 
was driving the members of the church from its doors, was 
it surprising that some of them strayed off to the White 
Meeting? The establishment of the church under the 
circumstances is strong evidence that there were earnest 
Christians and faithful churchmen in the colony. There 
must have been a deep religious sentiment in a people, 
who, numbering less than 10,000 souls, including men, 
women, and children, Indians and negroes, bond and free, 
maintained within two years, as we shall see, from the time 
Mr. Johnson wrote seventeen ministers.^ 

The religious animosities and strifes in the colony were 
but the counterpart of those in England at the time. 
They all, indeed, originated in the mother country. They 
were not indigenous to tlie province of Carolina. 

Another storm of popular religious passion was just 
about to burst on the Whigs in England over "a dull 
and silly sermon" of one Dr. Sacheverell, a High Churcli 
divine, for which the Whigs unwisely attempted to im- 
peach the author, — a political blunder as great as that 
of the Tories in 1704, when they attempted to tack the 
bill against " occasional conformity " upon a supply bill, 
necessary for the continuance of the war which was then 
popular. But political sentiment had now again changed, 
and an outburst of popular enthusiasm in Sachevereirs 
favor showed what a storm of hatred had gathered against 
the Whigs and the war.^ 

1 Howe's Hist. Presb. Ch., 163. 

2 Green's Hist. English People, vol. IV, 97. 



CHAPTER XXI 
1710-11 

Just before Governor Johnson's removal, he had been 
called upon by the Royal Government for a detailed state- 
ment of the condition of the province. In answer to this 
an elaborate and carefully prepared report was made. 
This paper is of so much value and its account so suc- 
cinctly given that, following Rivers, we shall not attempt 
to abbreviate, but will give it in full.^ The letter is 
dated the 17th of September, 1708, and is signed by Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson, Thomas Broughton, Robert Gibbes, 
George Smith, and Richard Berresford. 

" We, the Governor and conncil," said they, " in obedience to her 
sacred Majestys command and your Lordships instructions, have 
carefully inquired into the present circumstances of the province, etc. 

" The number of inhabitants in this province of all sorts, are com- 
puted to be 9,580 souls ; of which there are 1,360 free men, 900 free 
women, 60 white servant men, 60 white servant women, 1700 white 
free children, 1,800 negro men slaves, 1,100 women negro slaves, 500 
Indian men slaves, 600 Indian women slaves, 1,200 negro children 
slaves, and 300 Indian children slaves. 

" The freemen of this province, by reason of the late sickness 
brought hither from other parts, though now very healthy, and small 
supply from other parts, are within these five years last past decreased 
about 100, free women about 40 ; white servants, from the aforesaid 
reasons, and having completed their servitude, are decreased 50 ; 
white servant women, for the same reasons, are decreased 30 ; white 
children are increased 500 ; negro men slaves by importation, 300 ; 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 231. 
477 



478 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

negro women slaves, 200. Indian men slaves, by reason of our late 
conquest over the French and Spaniards, and the success of our 
forces against the Appalaskys and other Indian engagements, are 
within these five years increased to the number of 400, and the Indian 
women slaves to 450; negro children to GOO, and Indian children to 
200. 

" The whole number of the militia of this province, 950 white men, 
fit to bear arms, viz : 2 Regiments of foot, both making up 16 com- 
panies, 50 men, one with another, in a company ; to which might be 
added a like number of negro men slaves, the captain of each com- 
pany being obliged by an act of assembly, to enlist, train up and 
brinff into the field for each white, one able slave armed with a gun 
or lance, for each man in his company; and the governor's troop of 
guards, consisting of about forty men ; the colonel, lieutenant colonel, 
captain, cornet, and two exempts, together with nine patrols, ten men 
in each patrol, to take care of the women and children, in case of an 
alarm and invasion ; French Protestants, and independent company 
of San tee, consisting of forty-five men, and a patrol of ten men. 

" The commodities exported from this province to England, are 
rice, pitch, tar, buck and doeskins in the hair, and Indian dressed ; 
also, some few furs, as beaver, otter, wildcat, racoon, a little silk, 
white oak, pike staves and sometimes some other sorts. 

" We are sufficiently provided with timber fit for masts and yards 
of several sizes, both pine and cypress, which may be exported very 
reasonable, and supplied at all times of the year, there being no frost 
or snow considerable enough to hinder bringing them down the 
river. 

" Other commodities, not the produce of the place, but brought 
here from the American islands and exported to England, are logwood 
braziletto, fustic, cortex, isleathera, tortoiseshell, ambergrease, and 
cocoa. 

" From this province are exported to several of the American islands, 
as Jamaica, Barbadoes, Antigua, Nevis, St Christopher's, the Virgin's, 
Montserrat, and the Bahama Islands — staves, hooks and shingles, 
beef, pork, rice, pitch, tar, green wax, candles made of myrtle berries, 
tallow and tallow candles, butter, English and Indian peas, and some- 
times a small quantity of tanned leather. 

" Goods imported from the foregoing islands are, rum, sugar, 
molasses, cotton, fustic, braziletto, isleathera, ambergrease, tortoise- 
shell, salt, and pimento ; logwood is generally brought from the Bay 
of Campeachy. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 479 

"We are also often furnished with negroes from the American 
Islands, chiefly from Barbadoes and Jamaica; from whence also comes 
a considerable quantity of English manufactures, and Some prize 
goods viz. claret, brandy &ct, taken from the French and Spaniards. 

" We have also commerce with Boston, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, 
New York and Virgniia; to which place, we export Indian slaves, light 
deerskins dressed, some tanned leather, pitch, tar, and a small quantity 
of rice. From thence we receive beer, cider, flour, dry codfish and 
mackerel ; and from Virginia some European commodities. 

" Further we have a trade to the Madeiras (from whence we receive 
most of our wines) also to St Thomas and Cura9oa, to which places we 
send the same commodities as to the other islands, excepting pitch, 
tar, and rice, lately prohibited, which prohibition is very disadvan- 
tageous to the trade in these parts. 

" The trade of this province is certainly increased of late years, 
there being a greater consumption yearly of most commodities im- 
ported. And the inhabitants, by a yearly addition of slaves are made 
the more capable of improving the produce of the colony. Notwith- 
standing it is our opinion, that the value of our import is greater (if 
we include our negroes) than our export, by which means it comes to 
pass that we are very near drained of all our silver and gold coin ; 
nor is there any remedy to prevent this, but by a number of honest 
laborious persons to come among us, that would consume but little, 
by which means the produce of the country being increased might in 
time make our exportation equalize if not exceed our importation. 

" That which has been a considerable though unavoidable hindrance 
to the greater increase of our trade, is the great duty on goods, both 
imported, and exported, occasioned by the debts, the country is in- 
volved in, by the late expedition, in the time of Governor Moore 
against St Augustine, and the charge in fortifying Charles Town this 
time of war and danger; to which may very justly be added the late 
prohibition of pitch, tar, and rice. 

" There are not al)ov6 ten or twelve sail of ships belonging to this 
province, about half of which number were built here, besides a ship 
and sloop now on the stocks ; neither are there above twenty seafar- 
ing men who may be properly accounted settlers or livers in the 
province. 

" There are not as yet any manufactures settled in the province, 
saving some particular planters, who for their own use, make a few 
stuffs of silk and cotton, and a sort of cloth of cotton and wool of 
their own growth to clothe their slaves. 



480 HISTORY OP' SOtTTrt CAKOLIKA 

" All possible precautions are taken by this government to prevent 
illegal trade, the acts of trade, and navigation being strictly enforced 
on all occasions. 

"And now having answered the several queries stated to us by 
your lordships, in the best manner we are at present capable of, we 
humbly crave leave to superadd an account of the Indians our allies, 
our trade and commerce, with one another and their consumption 
of our goods, together with the present circumstances of Chai'les Town, 
and our new triangular fort and platform at Windmill Point, with an 
account of what provisions we want, to make them complete fortifica- 
tions. 

" The Indians under the protection of his [her ?] majestys govern- 
ment are numerous, and may be of great use in time of invasion. 
The nations we have trade with are as follows. The Yamassees, 
situated about 80 to 100 miles south from Charles Town ; they con- 
sist of about 500 men able to bear arms ; they are become great 
warriors, and are continually annoying the Spaniards, and the Indians 
their allies. 

" To the Southward of the Yamassees are a small nation called 
Paleachuckles, in number about 80 men. They are settled in a town 
about 20 miles up the Savannah River, and are very serviceable in 
furnishing with provisions the Englishmen who go up that river in 
periangers with a supply of goods for the Indians, and bring skins 
for them. 

"About 150 miles southwest from Charles Town, is settled, on the 
aforesaid river a nation of Indians called the Savannahs. They are 
seated in three towns and consist of about 150 men. A few miles dis- 
tant on the said River is a considerable town of Indians that deserted 
the Spaniards, and came with our forces from them about five years 
past. They are known by the name of Apalachys, and are about 250 
men, and behave themselves very submissive to this government. 
These people are situated very advantageous for trade. Indians 
seated upwards of 700 miles off are supplied with goods by our white 
men, who transport them from this river upon Indiatis backs. 

" About 150 miles westward are settled on Ochasee River eleven 
towns of Indians, consisting of 600 men, among whom are several 
families of the aforesaid Apalachys. These people are great warriors 
and hunters, and consume great quantities of English goods. 

" About 150 miles west from these people on the Chocta-Kuchy 
River there is a town of Indians settled for carrying on trade who are 
very serviceable on that account. These people are seated about 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 48 1 

midway between Ochasee River and the settlements of the Talla- 
bousies and the Attalbanees. They have tnany towns and consist of at 
least 1300 men, are great warriors, and trade with this government for 
great quantities of goods. 

" About 200 miles from the Tallabousies and the Attalbanees west- 
ward, lie the nations of Indians called the Chickysaws, who are at 
least in number 600 men. These Indians are stout and warlike. They 
are divided part in the English interest and part in the French. 
There is a factory settled by those French about four days journey 
down that river whereon the Tallabousies and Attalbanees live. 

" We have but few skins or furs from the Chickysaws, they living 
so distant it will hardly answer the carriage. Slaves is what we have 
in exchange for our goods, which these people take from several 
nations of Indians that live beyond them. 

" The Cherokee Indians live about 250 miles northwest from our 
settlements, on a ridge of mountains; they are a numerous people, but 
very lazy ; they are settled in 60 towns and are at least 500 men. The 
trade we have with them is inconsiderable, they being but ordinary 
hunters and less warriors. 

" There are several nations of Indians that inhabit to the northward 
of us ; our trade as yet with them is not nmch, but we are in hopes to 
improve it very shortly. 

" From the aforesaid several nations of Indians are brought and 
shipped for England, one year with another, at least 50,000 skins; 
to purchase which requires at least £2500 or £3000 — first cost of goods 
in England. The goods proper for a trade with the Indians are 
English cottons, broadcloth of several colors, duffels blue and red, 
beads of several sorts and sizes, axes, hoes, falchions, small fusee guns, 
powder, bullets, and small shot. 

" St. Augustine, a Spanish garrison being planted to the Southward 
of us about 100 leagues makes Carolina a frontier to all the English 
settlements on the main," etc. 

Two years subsequent to this report, i.e. 1710, the whites 
in the colony were computed to be 12 of the whole inhabi- 
tants ; Indian subjects, QQ ; and negro slaves, 22. Of the 
whites again, the planters were 70; merchants, about 13; 
and artisans, 17. With regard to religion, the Episcopal 
party were 42 ; the Presbyterians, including the French 
2i 



482 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

who retained their own discipline, 45 ; the Anabaptists, 
10 ; and the Quakers, 3. 

The prices of daily labor in currency of the colony 
were, — for a tailor, 5s. ; a bricklayer, 6s. ; a cooper, 4s. ; 
carpenters and joiners from 3s. to 5s. ; a laborer. Is. 3cZ. to 
2s. with food and lodgings. Overseers of planters received 
from ^15 to X40 per annum, and persons engaged to trade 
with Indians from X20 to XI 00 per annum. ^ 

Taxes were raised for extraordinary purposes from real 
and personal estate, and generally from imports of wines, 
liquors, sugar, molasses, flour, biscuits, negro slaves, etc. ; 
dry goods imported paid 3 per cent, and deerskins exported 
36^. per skin. The duties amounted to about X4500 per 
annum, which was then XIOOO more than the annual ex- 
penses of the government. 

The expenses consisted of XIOOO for ten Church of 
England ministers ; the same for finishing and repairing 
fortifications; X600 for officers and soldiers in gai'rison ; 
X300 for military stores; X250 for the Governor; and 
X400 for incidental charges. The overplus was intended 
for sinking bills of credit. These estimates were in cur- 
rency, and so must be reduced by one-third in estimating 
their value in good money; and this, calculated upon the 
present currency, will make the items, probably, nearly as 
follows: the church, from -f 13,000 to !i}^16,000 ; fortifica- 
tions the same ; officers and soldiers from f 4000 to ?i?5000 ; 
Governors from -12500 to 13000 ; military stores, 12000 to 
'$2500 ; and incidental charges from 15000 to iii<6000. 

The bills just mentioned were first issued for X6000 to 
pay the expenses of the expedition to St. Augustine in 
1703, and bore twelve per cent interest. To offer them in 
payment Avas a legal tender, and if refused, the creditor lost 
his chiim for the debt. But such refusal never occurred, 

1 Carroll's Coll, vol. II, 2G0 ; Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 239. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 483 

for the paper was hoarded for the sake of the interest. 
An addition of several thousand pounds was stamped, 
and the " old currency " exchanged for the new, which 
was without interest, for the purpose of drawing the bills 
more into circulation, and to save the treasury from ac- 
cumulating demands. Notwithstanding the change, the 
bills remained at par until the subsequent issue of very 
large amounts caused their depreciation.^ There was lit- 
tle coin in circulation ; and of the little, various values in 
colonial paper currency were attached to German, Peru- 
vian, Mexican, French, and Spanish pieces of gold and 
silver. To prevent the confusion arising from the dif- 
ferent rates at which these pieces passed in the differ- 
ent colonies, a uniform value was affixed to them, by a 
proclamation from the mother country, in the sixth year 
of Queen Anne's reign, — 1707. Hence the denomina- 
tion of " proclamation money," the standard of which was 
X133 6s. 6d. paper currency for XlOO sterling.^ 

The commerce between South Carolina and England 
employed, on an average, twenty-two vessels in 1710. The 
manufactures and slaves imported were only in part paid 
for by returns of colonial produce. The balance was re- 
quired by the merchants in spices and exchange sold in 
Charles Town at fifty per cent premium, and year after 
year still higher. But the Carolinians held a monopoly of 
rice, which was soon raised to four times its former price, 
and other produce in proportion as the currency depre- 

1 In Governor Glen's Description of So. Ca., he states that in 1710 
there was not much English money among the colonists, but that what 
they had passed at fifty per cent advance, the rate of exchange between 
South Carolina and England being £150 currency per £100 sterling. 

2 The difference must be borne in mind between proclamation money 
and currency. The former was in foreign coins, the value of which was 
fixed by act of Queen Anne, 1708. The latter was the paper money of 
the province. See Statutes, vol. II, 708, 700. 



484 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ciated. The merchants of London began now to become 
a new and important power near the throne, ever watchful 
of the embarrassments of Carolina and prompt to com- 
plain of the maladministration of the Lords Proprietors. 

The planters sowed rice in furrows eighteen inches 
apart, about a peck to an acre, witli a yield of thirty to 
sixty bushels. It was cleaned by mills turned by horses 
or oxen. The lands, after a few years' culture, lay fallow 
and were esteemed excellent pastures. The usual yield of 
corn to an acre was from eighteen to thirty bushels, with 
six bushels of Indian peas sown among it. Besides the 
great herds of cattle owned, as we have seen, by the 
planters, swine were raised in great numbers. Orchards 
of peaches and various fruits, forests of acorns, and mild 
winters rendered Carolina more abundant in stock than 
any other English colony. 

The experience of forty years among an energetic peo- 
ple, observes Rivers, from whom these statistics have been 
taken, had drawn from forest, field, and stream the same 
means of subsistence which we now enjoy. All the arts 
of peace were introduced, and education and religion had 
become matters of public concern. But wars and pesti- 
lence, tempests and inundations, had not spared them ; and 
the noise of political strife, which disturbed the slumbers 
of their childhood, had now attuned itself to sounds not 
unpleasant to their ears.^ 

Colonel Edward Tynte was commissioned Governor of 
North and South Carolina on December 9, 1708, but it was 
more than a year after that he came out and entered upon 
his duties. By his commission, he was authorized to ap- 
point a Deputy Governor or Governors in South or North 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 239-242 ; and see He watt's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 155-159; Hanisay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 160; Statutes of So. 
Ca., vol. II, notes, 708-713. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 485 

Carolina. He was authorized, also, to sell lands in fee in 
either colony at the rate of X20 for every 1000 acres, witli 
a yearly quit-rent of 10s. 

By his instructions, his attention was particularly called 
to the navigation acts, which he was required strictly to 
enforce. He was to take care that none but natives of 
the United Kingdom, or born in her Majesty's plantations, 
should sit upon juries in cases relating to the Queen's 
duties or forfeitures of goods by illegal importations. He 
should give notice to her Majesty's government of any 
attempted disposition of right of property to any other 
than her Majesty's natural-born subjects ; to take care that 
all places of trusts in courts of law or connected with the 
treasury should be in the hands of her Majesty's natural- 
born subjects. These instructions seem aimed at the ex- 
clusion of the Huguenots from these positions and from 
rights of property without the Royal consent. 

By additional instructions, his attention was called to a 
modification of the navigation acts by which, during the 
war, the number and proportion of English marinei'S in 
each ship or vessel was reduced from three-fourths to one- 
half. 

By still further instructions he was required to trans- 
mit to the Proprietors for their approval all laws passed. 
He was given power, with the consent of four or more 
deputies, to adjourn or dissolve the General Assembly 
when he might see fit; to fill vacancies in offices caused 
by death or removal. Abel Ketelby had purchased 5000 
acres, which was to be admeasured to him. In the 
event of the death of the Governor or his departure, the 
deputies were to choose one out of their number to be 
Governor until another should be appointed by the Pro- 
prietors. He was to take great care that the Indians 
should not be abused, that justice should be dul}^ admin- 



486 HlSTOllY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

isterecl to them in the courts ; and he was to exert himself 
to the utmost to create a firm friendship, and to bring 
them over for the better protection and defence against 
the enemy and neighboring French and Spaniards. He 
was to inform himself of what acts were proper to be 
passed likely to be beneficial to trade. He was to repre- 
sent the state of the whale fishing and what further 
encouragement was proper to be given to it. No land 
exceeding 640 acres was to be sold without a special 
warrant. The purchase money and quit-rents of all 
lands thereafter sold in South Carolina was to be of 
the value of English sterling money, and to be made 
payable at Charles Town; lands sold in North Carolina 
to be of the same value, and made payable at Chowan 
or Bath Tovvn.^ 

The publications of Oldmixon and Archdale about this 
time drew attention in England to the fortunes of the 
Carolinians and other colonists in America. Lord Craven, 
by nature more moderate than the late Palatine, anxious 
to avail himself of this interest in his colony, charged upon 
the new Governor as his first duty the pacification of the 
people. When after a long delay Colonel Tynte had 
been approved by the Royal Government, and was ready 
to enter upon his duties, February, 1710, Lord Craven 
thus addressed him : '' We earnestly request your en- 
deavors to reconcile the minds of the inhabitants to each 
other, that the names of parties, if any yet remain amongst 
you, may be utterly extinguished. For we can no ways 
doubt but their prosperity will most effectually render 
Carolina the most flourishing colony in all America." ^ 

No remarkable events occurred during Governor Tynte's 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 154 ; Colonial Becords of No. Ca., 
vol. I, 704-70(5. 

- Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 248. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 487 

short term of ofBce. He died the summer after his arrival. 
A General Assembly was held in April, 1710, and several 
acts were passed and approved by him. One of these was 
an act for regulating taverns and punch houses ; ^ another, 
an additional act in relation to the establishment of the 
church. 2 By this latter act the arrears of the parochial 
charges of St. Philip's, Charles Town, and other parishes 
were directed to be paid out of the public treasury ; and, 
said the act, "the present rector of St. Philip's, Charles 
Town, the Rev. Mr. Gideon Johnson, having a numerous 
family, shall have fifty pounds per annum added to his 
salary for so long a time as he continues minister of the 
said parish," etc. The sums of money appropriated by 
the act were to be paid out of the money received for the 
duties on skins and furs. The most important of the 
acts of his brief administration, and one which renders 
that administration illustrious, however brief its dura- 
tion, was " An act for the Founding and Greeting a Free 
school for the use of the Inhabitants of South Carolina.''^ ^ 

The recital of this act is interesting as showing that 
even before this time, notwithstanding the political tur- 
moils and commotions which had distracted the province, 
the erection of a free school had been proposed, and some 
steps taken towards its establislnnent. It is as follows : — 

*' Whereas it is necessary that a Free School be erected for the in- 
struction of the youth of this Province in grammar and other arts and 
sciences and useful learning, and also in the principles of the christian 
religion ; and whereas several charitable and v^^ell disposed christians 
by their last wills and testaments have given several sums of money 
for the founding of a freeschool but no person as yet is authorized to 
take the charge and care of erecting a freeschool according to the in- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 336. The date of this act is given in the 
statute as of 14th of January, 1700. But this is a manifest mistake. 
Governor Tynte did not come out till some time after. 

•■^/6id., 338. a/6id., 342. 



488 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tent of the donors, and to receive the said legacies, if tendered, nor 
to demand the same in case of refusal to pay the same, so that for 
want of some person or persons or body politick or corporate proper 
for the lodging the said legacies therein the same are not applied 
according to the pious and charitable intention of the testators or 
donors. Be it therefore enacted," etc. 

The commissioners appointed under this act were the 
Hon. Colonel Edward Tynte, Esq., Governor, Colonel 
Thomas Broughton, Esq., Landgrave Joseph Morton, Mr. 
William Gibbon, Colonel George Logan, Richard Berres- 
ford, Esq., Arthur Middleton, Esq., Captain John Abraham 
Motte, Colonel Hugh Grange, Ralph Izard, Esq., Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Alexander Parris, Esq., Lewis Pasquereau, 
Dr. Gideon Johnson, Dr. Francis Le Jau, Mr. Alexander 
Wood, and Nicholas Trott, Esq. These commissioners, 
comprising the leading men of all parties in the province, 
churchmen, dissenters, and Huguenots, were incorporated 
for the better support and maintenance of masters or 
teachers for the school, and for the erecting of schoolhouses 
and convenient houses for the accommodation of the 
masters and teachers. They were to meet annually on 
the second Tuesday in July to choose officers. Colonel 
Edward T3nite, Governor, was made the first President 
and required to summon the first meeting. All gifts 
or legacies formerly given for the use of a free school 
for the province were approj^riated by the act for the 
school to be founded under it. The commissioners were 
authorized to take up by grant from the Proprietors 
or purchase as much land as they should think neces- 
sary. They were given power to appoint a fit person to 
be master of the school by the name and stile of Prie- 
ceptor and Teacher of Grammar and other arts and 
sciences. The person to be master of the school was 
required to be of the religion of the Church of England, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 489 

and conform to the same, and should be capable to teach 
■' the learned languages, that is to say, the Latin and Greek 
tongues and also the useful parts of mathematics. The 
commissioners were to prescribe such orders, rules, stat- 
utes, and ordinances for the order, rule, and good govern- 
ment of the school and of the masters and teachers as 
should seem meet and convenient to them. 

The other acts passed at this time were measures of or- 
dinary administration. 

Governor Tynte died soon after, and by the instructions 
which he had brought it had been provided, as we have 
just seen, that in such an event the deputies of the Proprie- 
tors were to choose one of their number to be Governor 
until another should be appointed by the Proprietors. It 
happened that at this time there were but three deputies 
in the province ; to wit, Robert Gibbes, Colonel Thomas 
Broughton, and one Fortescue Turbeville. The last- 
named person had just come out as the deputy of the 
Duke of Beaufort,^ and had been commissioned also to 
take probate of wills, and to grant letters of adminis- 
tration. ^ Upon the meeting of these for the purpose of 
choosing a Governor, there had been a recess taken 
from the morning until the afternoon, when it was de- 
clared that Robert Gibbes was chosen and was proclaimed 
Governor. Strangely, it happened that Turbeville also 
died suddenly, and upon liis death it was discovered that 
at the morning session Turbeville had voted for Colonel 
Broughton, but during the recess had been induced by 
bribery to change his vote to Gibbes. Upon this Brough- 
ton claimed the government, alleging Turbeville's pri- 
mary and \incorrupted vote in his favor. To this 
Gibbes would not yield. Each persisted in his claim, and 
thereupon ensued a most discreditable controversy, ending 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 156. 2 xhid., 178. 



490 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in riot. Many of the people sided with Broughton, but 
more with Gibbes. Broughton collected a number of 
armed men at his plantation and proceeded to the town. 
Gibbes, learning of this, caused a general alarm to be made 
and the militia to be called out. At the approach of 
Broughton's party to the gates of the town Gibbes ordered 
the drawbridge standing near the intersection of Broad and 
Church, now Meeting, streets, to be drawn up. Brough- 
ton's party demanded admittance. Gibbes from within 
the walls inquired why they came armed in such numbers, 
and whether they would own him for their Governor. 
They answered that they had heard there Avas an alarm, 
and were come to make their appearance, but would not 
own him, Gibbes, to be their Governor. He, of course, 
denied them entrance, whereupon some rode around the 
walls towards Craven Bastion seeking entrance there ; 
but failing, soon returned to the drawbridge. In the 
meantime the Broughton party in the town, some of whom 
were inhabitants and others sailors ready for any mischief, 
gathered, and proceeded to force a passage and let down 
the drawbridge. Gibbes's party opposed, but were not 
allowed to fire upon them. After some blows and wounds 
given and received, the sailors and men of Broughton's 
party in the town succeeded so far as to lower the draw- 
bridge, over which tlieir friends entered and proceeded to 
the watch-house in Broad Street. ^ There the two town 
companies of militia were posted under arms and with 
colors flying. When Broughton's party came near they 
halted, and one of tliem attempted to read a paper, but 
could not be heard because of the noise made by the 
drums of the militia. Thus balked, they marched towards 
Granville Bastion and were escorted by the seamen. As 
they passed in front of the militia, whose guns were 

1 Now the site of the old postoffice. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVEilNMENT 491 

cocked and presented, one of the sailors, catching at the 
ensign, tore it off the staff. On this provocation some 
of the militia fired their pieces, but fortunately no one 
was hurt. Captain Brewton with drawn sword demanded 
the torn ensign or flag, wliich was yielded, but Captain 
Evans, a considerable man of Broughton's party, soon 
after Attorney General, rescued it. Broughton's party 
continued their march for some time and then proclaimed 
him Governor. Hurrahing, they approached the fort 
gate of Granville Bastion and made a show of forcing it ; 
but observing Captain Fawley with his pistol cocked, and 
many other gentlemen with their guns presented, and all 
forbidding them at their peril to attempt the gate, they 
retired to a tavern in the bay before which they first 
caused their written paper or proclamation to be again 
read. After much altercation and negotiation through 
the mediation of several peacemakers, a compromise was 
agreed upon by which the controversy was suspended to 
await the decision of the Lords Proprietors. In the 
meantime Gibbes was to continue in the administration 
of the government. 1 

It was not until January 23d, following (1710-11), that 
an account of the disputes between Colonel Broughton 
and Colonel Gibbes was received at a meeting of the Pro- 
prietors ; upon reading which it was determined that 
Gibbes had been guilty of bribery, and had not been 
duly elected Governor. The Proprietors, it appears, had, 
however, before learning of this trouble, determined to 
appoint Charles Craven, a brother of the Palatine, Gov- 
ernor in the place of Colonel Tynte.^ Mr. Craven, who 

1 This account is taken from Ramsay (Ilist. of So. Ca., vol. I, 63), 
who f^ives it upon the authority of an old manuscript in the handwriting 
of Thomas LamboU, a native of South Carolina, who died in the year 
1775, upwards of eighty years of age. See also Hist. Sketches (Rivers), 249. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 182. 



492 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was in Carolina, luid already been appointed Secretary of 
the province. 1 On the 14th of March the Proprietors 
sent Governor Craven an order declaring that as it ap- 
peared to them that Gibbes had been guilty of bribery, 
it Avas unanimously resolved that no salary should be 
paid to him as Governor. ^ 

Notwithstanding this action on the part of the Proprie- 
tors, Gibbes continued in office, and administered the 
government until the end of the year. Thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the affairs of the province, having been in 
the colony from its earliest settlement, his administration 
was marked by wise enactment and the undisturbed pros- 
perity of the people. He was not, however, popular, and 
found in the Assembly many "unwilling members," who 
continued " very dilatory for six months " ; finally it be- 
came impossible to secure a quorum for the transaction of 
business. Another Assembly was chosen, May, 1711, but 
many members elected refused to qualify. Upon its as- 
sembling, Gibbes expressed his gratification of meeting, 
before his retirement, those who appeared. In his speech 
he said " there was one among them to whom he would 
readily resign the government whenever legally de- 
manded." He rejoiced that they had no complaints to 
make against him in the various offices in which he had 
served them, and stated that he had received from the 
Palatine congratulations on his recent election ; ^ for forty- 
eight years he had been in the service of Carolina, and 
left it in a flourishing condition, " abounding with trade 
with almost all parts of America, and most parts of 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., 179. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., note, 02. 

3 These congratulations must have been sent, however, before the 
Proprietors liacl received the account of the manner in which lie had 
secured his election by the deputies. There must have been some mis- 
take as to the length of his service, inasmuch as the colony had not been 
founded but forty-one years. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 498 

Europe in amity with us, and some parts of Africa." He 
recommended particularly to their attention the introduc- 
tion of white immigrants on account of the large increase 
of negroes, who were beginning to exhibit a malicious 
disposition. He called attention also to the necessity of 
separating those sick of the smallpox, then prevalent 
in Charles Town, from contact with such as were not 
infected. 1 

Several events of interest took place during Gibbes's 
administration indicative of the growing and improving 
condition of the people ; it was remarkable also, on the 
other hand, for the further outbreak of Indian hostilities 
— this time in North Carolina, but soon to be renewed in 
this province also. 

On the 17th of January, 1710-11, upon the application 
of several mercha,nts representing " the great advantages 
that might accrue to her Majesty's subjects in general by 
constituting and erecting a port upon the river called 
Port Royal in Granville County, being as they alleged 
the most proper place within the province for ships of 
great burdens to take in meats, pitch, turpentine, and 
other naval stores for the use of her Majestj^'s fleet," the 
Lords Proprietors gave "directions for the building of a 
town to be called Beaufort Town," — in honor of the new 
Proprietor, the Duke of Beaufort, — upon the Port Royal 
River and island of that name.^ It was nearly twenty-five 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 250, 251. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 159, 181. 

Professor Whitney, in his tract upon the " Government of the Colony 
of South Carolina" {Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 13 series, 1-11, C4), 
says : " The second town of importance was Port Royal where the French 
had settled under Ribault in 1562, and where the Proprietors had wished 
the colonists to settle in 1670." 

This is very inaccurate. The town was not called " Port Royal," hut 
*' Beaufort Town " as mentioned in the text; nor was it laid out upon 



494 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

years since the destruction, by the Spaniards, of Stuart 
Town, Lord Cardross's attempted settlement at Port RoyaL 
But in the quarter of a century since, the country had 
filled up, and it was now deemed prudent to make another 
effort to establish a toAvn upon that magnificent harbor. 
This was the foundation of a settlement which became 
the wealthiest, most aristocratic, and cultivated town of 
its size in America ; a town which, though small in num- 
ber of inhabitants, produced statesmen, scholars, soldiers, 
sailors, and divines whose names and whose fame are 
known throughout the country. 

During Governor Tynte's brief administration, an act 
had been passed, as we have seen, to establish a free 
school. Under Gibbes's rule, the matter was pressed, 
and, with the assistance of the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, the project was carried out. The 
missionaries of the society and many other gentlemen 
of the province, to whom the Avant of schools had been 
a source of great solicitude, addressed the society upon 
the subject. They described the deplorable condition of 
the rising generation for want of sufficient education, and 
lamented the decay of piety and morals as the inevitable 
consequence of leaving the young to their oavu pursuits 
and to the influence of evil example. The spiritual as 
well as temporal interests of the people Avere declared 
to be at stake, as an uneducated community Avas but a 

the spot where Ribault had settled and left his colony in 1562. "Fort 
Charles," Ribault's settlement, was on " Parris Island," not on "Port 
Royal Island," The points are at least five miles apart. See Hist. 
Sketches (Rivers), 25, and note ; and Mill's Atlas of So. Ca. 

Professor AVhitnoy is also mistaken as to the settlement of the third 
town, "Georgetown." That town was not settled, as he states, about 
the same time as Beaufort. It was not settled until nearly twenty years 
after; nor is Georgetown referred to as Winyaw. "Prince George's 
AVinyaw " is the name of the parish, not of the town. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 495 

small remove from the habits and feelings of savage life. 
The society recognized the force of the appeal, and, in 
the year 1711, they sent out the Rev. William Guy, A.M., 
who was placed in charge of the school, and who at the 
same time was appointed assistant minister of St. Philip's 
Church. Mr. Guy was a native of England, and in Dea- 
con's orders. He was ordained by Dr. Compton, Bishop 
of London, January 18, 1711. With Mr. Guy, the soci- 
ety sent out also the Rev. Benjamin Dennis, as a school- 
master for St. James, Goose Creek. Two schools were 
thus established in 1711.^ 

The congregation of St. Philip's Church had so in- 
creased, — despite the parochial troubles with the minis- 
ters, Marston and Marsden, and notwithstanding the 
character given them by Dr. Gideon Johnson in his pri- 
vate correspondence^ — that not only was there a neces- 
sity for an assistant minister, but it became necessary to 
build a new church, both because of the decay of the old 
building and because the church was too small for the 
population. 2 The preamble to the act for building the 
church states that several persons were desirous to have 
a new church built of brick in Charles Town, to be the 
parish church there, and a tower or steeple and a ring of 
bells therein, together with a cemetery or churchyard to 
be enclosed with a brick wall, for the burial of Christian 
people ; and that charitable and well-disposed persons 
would contribute towards the building a church, if com- 
missioners were authorized and appointed to receive and 
take care of all such moneys as should be given for the 
purpose. Whereupon, the Rev. Gideon Johnson, Colonel 
William Rhett, Colonel Alexander Parris, Messrs. Will- 
iam Gil)bons, John Bee, and Jacob Satur were appointed 
commissioners for the purpose, and for receiving sub- 
1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 93-248. 2 /^^vz., 92. 



49(3 HISfORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

scriptions and charitable donations ; they were authorized 
to purchase and take grants of town lots for the church- 
yard, and to build the church of such height, dimensions, 
materials, and form as they should think fit ; to enclose 
the churchyard, and to procure the ring of bells. The 
pews were to be built by the direction of the commis- 
sioners with the advice of tlie vestry ; the Governor's 
pew to be built as he should direct. This act Avas merely 
permissive ; no public funds were appropriated for the 
purpose.^ 

Though Governor Craven's commission had been signed 
on the 21st of February, 1710-11, and though he appears 
to have been in the province, he had not assumed the 
government when, in September following, the outbreak 
of the Tuscarora Indians took place in North Carolina. 

The Proprietors had been in negotiation with Baron 
Christopher de Graff enried and Lewis Michel for the 
establishment of a colony from the Swiss canton of 
Bern ; and on the 3d of September, 1709, had given a 
warrant to De Graffenried for 10,000 acres of land, and 
to Michel for 3500 acres. Baron de Graffenried they 
made a Landgrave. The warrant for the survey of the 
land granted Avas made to John Lawson, the traveller 
among the Indians, and author of the work entitled A 
New Voyage to Carolina^ from which quotation has been 
made, and who was now the Surveyor of North Carolina; 
and Christopher Gale, the Receiver General, was directed 
to supply the colonists with provisions upon their arrival.^ 
In laying out these tracts Lawson encroached upon lands 
near the Neuse River, claimed by the Tuscarora Indians. 
It happened, too, that at the time of the arrival of De 
Graffenried's colou}^ the government of North Carolina was 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 453, 454 ; Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 352. 

2 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 718. 



TINDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 497 

torn by the most violent factions, one led by Edward 
Moseley, and the other by Thomas Pollock, to which the 
Proprietors seem to have been as indifferent, if not dis- 
interested, spectators as they were to the struggles in 
South Carolina between Colleton and Sothell, Morton and 
Moore, and Gibbes and Broughton. The Baron, courted 
hy both parties as well because of his title as Landgrave 
and its rights under the Constitutions, as because of the 
number of his followers, which might hold the balance of 
parties, ultimately was drawn to the support of Pollock, 
who was then maintaining the interest of Governor Hyde, 
against the pretensions of Colonel Cary, a struggle which 
ended in the latter's rebellion. During these commotions 
the Indians were made to believe that De Graffenried had 
come to expel them from their lands ; and the Baron and 
Lawson, unfortunately exposing themselves upon an expe- 
dition up the Neuse River to ascertain if it was navigable, 
were taken, and Lawson was put to death, it is said, in 
the most inhuman manner. If the information subse- 
quently derived from the Indians be true, they stuck him 
full of fine, small splinters of torch-wood, like hog's bris- 
tles, and set them gradually on fire. Baron de Graff en- 
ried was spared from death and ultimately made his 
escape. This was but the beginning of the trouble. A 
general uprising took place, ending in the most horrible 
massacre on the 22d of September, 1711. Twelve hun- 
dred Tuscaroras, separated into numerous small divisions, 
fell upon the whites at the dawn of that day. The 
slaughter was indiscriminate and horrible enough to make 
the Indian annals of Albemarle the bloodiest and most 
cruel. One hundred and tliirty victims were butchered 
in the settlements on the Roanoke. The Swiss around 
Newbern, to the number of sixty more, were murdered. 
The Huguenots of Bath, and its vicinity, to what num- 
2 k 



498 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAllOLIKA 

ber is not known, fell under the knife and tomahawk. 
Women were laid upon the house floors and great stakes 
were driven through their bodies ; from others big with 
child the infants were ripped out, and hung upon trees ; 
and so hotly did the Indians pursue the survivors that 
the dead were left unburied, a prey to dogs, wolves, 
and vultures. The carnage lasted for three days, and 
terminated at last only from the disability produced in 
the savages by the combined effect of drunkenness and 
fatigue.^ 

Governor Hyde at once communicated the terrible con- 
dition of affairs in his province to Virginia and to South 
Carolina. To the latter he sent, without delay, a special 
messenger, Christopher Gale. Gale, upon his arrival, 
presented a memorial to Robert Gibbes as Governor, and 
to the Council and General Assembly. To receive this, 
Governor Gibbes immediately convened the General As- 
sembly, which met on the 26th of October, Avhen he laid 
before the Houses the letters which Gale had brought. 
Upon reading these in the Assembly, it Avas at once 
" Resolved : That it is the opinion of this House that the 
inhabitants of North Carolina in their present deplorable 
circumstances should be aided and assisted by this gov- 
ernment." Upon receiving notice of this resolution, the 
Governor and Council promptly replied : '' We are heartily 
glad that the Resolution of your House is so agreeable to 
ours & that tliose good intentions may the sooner be 
put in execution we desire that you would speedily pro- 
pose a method to answer the end we aim at, the relief of 
our poor distressed Brethren of North Carolina." It was 
determined to raise immediately a sufficient number of 
warlike Indians with proper officers for this service, and to 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. I, Preface, xxx, and 826 ; Hawks's 
Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 530. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 499 

raise the sum of c£4000 to provide arms and ammunition 
and to meet expenses. It was also " Ordered: That the 
offer of the chief Captain of the forces to be raised to 
march ag'* the Tusqueroras be made to Jno Barnwell 
Esqr. which the Speaker having made : The S* John 
Barnwell answered the House that he thanked the House 
for the offer & that he would accept the same." ^ 

Colonel Barnwell set out with all expedition ; and the 
Assembly appointed Friday, the 16th of November, a day of 
humiliation and prayer in behalf of their distressed neigh- 
bors. Colonel Barnwell's command consisted of a small 
body of militia and several hundred Indians ; to wit, 218 
Cherokees under the command of Captains Harford and 
Turstons, 79 Creeks under Captain Hastings, 41 Cataw- 
bas under Captain Cantey, and 28 Yamassees under Cap- 
tain Pierce, which little force immediately entered upon 
the long and toilsome march through the then wilderness 
between Charles Town and the Neuse River. Governor 
Hyde, in the meanwhile, had not been idle and, embodying 
the militia as far as the deplorable factions — which con- 
tinued even in this great extremity — would allow, and 
collecting provisions for their coming allies, he awaited 
their arrival. As soon as this took place and a junction 
of their forces was made, Barnwell assumed the aggressive. 
As the troops of the province approached, the Indians 
collected all their strength into one body, but retreated 
as Barnwell advanced upon them. He pursued and came 
up with them on the 28th of January, 1712, in the upper 
part of the present County of Craven, North Carolina. 
Here they had erected on the shores of the Neuse a strong 
wooden breastwork or palisade fort about twenty miles to 
the westward of the town of Newbern. Receiving at 
this place some fresh reinforcements, they marched out 

1 MSS. Journals; Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol I, 820-829. 



500 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

boldly to give battle to the whites. But Barnwell, with- 
out waiting their attack, made a furious assault, and 
defeated them with great slaughter. More than 300 
Indians were killed and 100 were made prisoners ; how 
many were wounded or afterwards died of their wounds 
was not known. The survivors retreated into their fort 
and Avere surrounded by the whites. Barnwell, short of 
provisions and unwilling to carry the fort by assault, 
because of the white prisoners the Indians had therein, 
who would doubtless have been at once dispatched had it 
been attacked, granted a treaty, and peace was willingly 
concluded. He sent to Charles Town for a sloop to take 
home his disabled men and himself, for he too had been 
wounded, while his Indian allies retraced their line of 
march homeward.^ 

The news of the battle was a great relief to Governor 
Hyde and his Council. They ordered a formal vote of 
thanks, first, to the government of South Carolina, for 
sending Barnwell and the troops ; and secondly, they 
deputed two of their members to convey the thanks of 
the board to Barnwell personally, " for his great care dili- 
gence and conduct." They next resolved at all hazards 
to prosecute the war, and proposed to raise 200 men for 
four months' service to act with the South Carolinians 
under Barnwell's command. ^ 

Thus far, observes Hawks, all seemed prosperous, and 
Colonel Barnwell appears, on the records of the country, 
to have possessed the esteem and confidence of the au- 
thorities in North Carolina. Tradition, too, in that part 
of the country, he says, has preserved a most respectful 
remembrance of the South Carolinian leader. Born near 

1 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 537 ; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. 
(Rivers), 254 ; Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 202. 

2 Ilawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 538. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 501 

the spot, Dr. Hawks says that he made inquiries of the 
most aged of his countrymen in that region, but could 
hear no disparaging imputation upon Colonel BarnwelFs 
conduct. His name was still honorably preserved in 
memory by the same Indian fort ; the spot where it stood 
is called to this day "Fort Barnwell." But the truth of 
history requires him, he says, with honest impartiality to 
relate that it would seem, from the records of the Council 
of North Carolina of May 9, 1712, some three months 
after the battle, that for some cause not specifically men- 
tioned the authorities of the province were not satisfied 
with Barnwell's conduct. 

Dr. Hawks states that he had made diligent search to 
find from other sources the cause of this altered feeling 
towards Barnwell, and from letters to Governor Spots- 
wood, Governor Hyde, and Colonel Pollock he had gath- 
ered that, in two particulars, his conduct was complained 
of. First, it was alleged that after the Indians had re- 
treated to their fort and were surrounded by his men, 
he had them completely in his power, and might, l)y ex- 
terminating them, have put an end to the war ; but not- 
withstanding also that Colonel Mitchell had raised a 
battery within eleven yards of the fort, and mounted it 
with two pieces of cannon, surrounding also a portion 
of the palisade Avith combustibles, Barnwell, nevertheless, 
made a treaty with the savages thus beleaguered, and per- 
mitted them to escape. Secondly, it was stated that after 
the treaty he violated good faitli by permitting his men 
to fall upon the towns of those Indians with whom he 
had made peace, and thus renewed the war. 

Dr. Hawks examines very thoroughly tliese charges, 
which had been partially accepted, even by our own 
historian. Professor Rivers, upon the authority of Will- 
iamson — an authority which Dr. Hawks refuses, how- 



502 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ever, to recognize — and from records not accessible to 
Rivers in a great measure explains them away. He 
shows that Governor Spotswood, who charged Barnwell 
with " clapping up a peace," knew nothing of the matter 
personally, and derived his impressions from Governor 
Hyde and Colonel Pollock, whom Barnwell had offended 
by an intimacy Avhich had grown up between Moseley 
and himself. In the bitterness of the factions in North 
Carolina, it was charged that the Indian outbreak had 
been instigated by Gary and Moseley. Tlley looked, 
therefore, upon Barnwell with suspicion and distrust 
because of his associates, and when the Tuscarora Indians 
were allowed to escape and very shortly after renewed 
their hostilities, it was not difficult for them to convince 
themselves that under Moseley's influence they had pur- 
posely been allowed to do so from sinister motives.^ 

But the recent publication of the manuscript of Baron 
de Graffenried completely refutes the charges and gives 
a plain and satisfactory explanation of Colonel Barnwell's 
motives for not assaulting the fort when its capture w^as 
no longer a matter of doubt. The reason was, as before 
suggested, that the fort was full of Avhite captives, who 
cried out that they would be slaughtered if the assault 
was made. That this simple explanation of a transaction 
for which Colonel BaruAvell was very much blamed by 
the Pollock faction, says Saunders, in his preface to the 
Colonial Records of North Oarolma, comes to us from 
Switzerland more than a century and half after its occur- 
rence, and not from the Pollock faction, shows witli how 
much caution the statements of that faction must be re- 
ceived. Unfortunately, all the records of that day that 
have come to us were made by the Pollock faction, and 
none by their rivals of the Moseley party. It seems, 
1 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 540, 541. 



UNDER THE PHOPKIETARY GOVEllNxMENT 503 

continues Saunders, incredible that Pollock did not know 
why Barnwell preferred to " clap up a peace " rather than 
carry the fort by assault ; yet he makes no mention of it. 
Barnwell was on too good terms with Moseley for him 
to find favor in Pollock's sight. Tradition in and about 
the locality, it is said, corroborates Dr. Graffenried's 
statement as to the presence of white captives in the 
fort.i 

Dr. Hawks points out, also, that there is something 
suspicious in the long interval permitted to elapse be- 
tween the time of the treaty, January, 1712, and the 
period when the North Carolina Council first noticed the 
supposed treason, i.e. May, 1712. The treaty was no 
secret during all this period ; and it was four months 
before the Council said a word, and when they did speak, 
they confessed they had made no examination of the facts, 
important as they were to the country. They threatened 
an official complaint to South Carolina, Avhich was to fol- 
low if they found Barnwell guilty. No such complaint 
was ever made.^ Colonel Barnw^ell's reputation was so 
little affected by the factional slander in North Carolina 
that the second expedition which South Carolina was 
soon called upon to send would no doubt have been en- 
trusted to him if it were not for the injuries he had re- 
ceived in the first, which rendered him unable to mount 
his horse. ^ 

In the year 1711, still further changes took place in 
the board of Proprietors. William Lord Craven died, 
and Sir Fulwar Skipwith was shortly after admitted to 
the board as guardian to that nobleman's successor, the 
Lord Craven — then an infant. John Lord Carteret be- 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., Preface, xxxi, 955. 

2 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 542. 

3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 254, note. 



504 HiSTOKY OF SOUTH CAKOLINA 

came of age and took his seat. On the 8th of November, 
1711, at a meeting at the Duke of Beaufort's house, at 
which, however, his Grace was not present but was rep- 
resented by Mr. Manly, upon a motion to proceed to the 
election of another Palatine in the room of William Lord 
Craven, deceased, a letter was read from Lord Carteret, 
proposing the Duke of Beaufort, which was unanimously 
agreed to, and the Duke became the seventh Palatine of 
Carolina.^ 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 183. 



CHAPTER XXII 

1712 

The Hon. Charles Craven at length assumed the gov- 
ernment, — some time in the early part of the year 1712. 
Since the days of Joseph West, says Rivers, no man more 
wise, pure, and capable, or more beloved by the people, 
had been appointed to govern Carolina.^ Nothing had 
yet been heard from Colonel Barnwell since he had set 
out upon his expedition. 

When the Assembly met on the 2d of April,^ the new 
Governor in his "speech," as the address upon opening 
that body was now termed, observed that, having lived 
some time among them, knowing that the Lords Proprie- 
tors had nominated him as Governor, an opportunity had 
been afforded of diligent inquiry into the state of the 
province to learn wherein its true interest lay, wliich 
none of his predecessors had had at heart more than him- 
self. He recommended them to do everything that might 
secure the province both from foreign and domestic in- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 251, 252. 

2 The members of this House of Commons, so worthy of remembrance 
for its excellent work, were as follows: Colonel William Rhett, Speaker; 
Colonel Alexander Parris, Henry Wigginton, Esq., Thonias Nairne, Esq., 
Mr. Manly Williams, Mr. John Morgan, Mr. William Gibbon, Mr. Jacob 
Eve, Henry Noble, Esq., Captain Benjamin Quelch, Captain Peter Staner, 
Mr. John Oldfield, Mr. William Euller, Captain Arthur Hall, Mr. John 
Raven, Mr. Samuel Wragg, Mr. J5enjamin Godin, Mr. Jacob Beamor, 
Captain Lorcey, and Mr. Henroydah English. Commons Journal (MS.). 

505 



506 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

vasion. He urged the repair of Fort Johnson and the 
fortifications around the town. " 'Tis true," he said, " we 
hear of a treaty of peace going forward, and wliat may 
Ave expect from so good and pious a Queen, whose delight 
is in her subjects' welfare , but the conclusion is yet un- 
certain and we are so great a distance that our enemies 
in the interior may invade us, lay waste our Province 
before we can receive the benefit of so desirable a bless- 
ing."^ By his instructions, he said, he Avas ordered to 
have a particular regard for the Indians, and to protect 
them from insult ; their friendship was so necessary to 
the well-being of the province he need not press the mat- 
ter further to the representatives of the people, whose 
eyes were always open to the public good. 

This led him to speak of the expedition to North Caro- 
lina, and to express his surprise that in so many months 
they had no true account of the condition of their friends, 
their enemies, or even of the army, — none but fabulous 
reports. Where the fault lay, time only could discover. 
But as intelligence was the life of action, information 
must first be obtained before coming to any further reso- 
lution upon the subject. 

He recommended a revicAv of all the laws passed during 
the late government, and he was ready to do liis part in 
whatever should be determined by the wisdom of the 
Assembly. He advised also that some effectual means 
should be devised of settling funds to discharge the debts 
of the province, for the honor and dignity of the govern- 
ment, and to maintain the public credit. Then, in reference 
to the late contentions in the province, he thus spoke : — 

" Gentlemen As my own persuasions will ever dispose me to do 
every thing that may contribute to the prosperity and firm establisli- 
ment of the Church of England, so will my temper always incline me 

^ Public Records of So. Ca. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 507 

as a fellow christian to show the greatest tenderness to those who 
are under the misfortune of dissenting from her, and to do nothing 
that may seem to endanger them that liberty. It were to be wished 
indeed that we could all be of one opinion ; but that is morally im- 
possible ; but in this we may all agree, to live amicably together, 
consult the common good, the tranquillity of our province and the 
increase of its trade. 

"However great such an honor might be," said he, "yet I shall 
look on it as a greater glory if with your assistance I could bring to 
pass so noble designs as the safety of this province, the advancement 
of its riches, and what is more desirable that unanimity and quiet 
that will so much contribute toward rendering this the most flourish- 
ing colony on the Main. ... To what a prodigious height hath 
the united provinces risen in less than a century of years to be able 
to create fear in some, envy in others and admiration in the whole 
world." 1 

The anxiety concerning the Indian outbreak in North 
Carolina was not relieved until the following July, when 
the news of Colonel Barnwell's success was received, and 
a sloop sent to bring him and his disabled men home.^ In 
the meanwhile the spirit of the Governor's address was 
highly^ appreciated and fully responded to. 

The Assembly, regardless of factions and animosities, 
devoted themselves to the welfare of the province, and by 
their assiduity and ability rendered the year 1712 famous 
in the legislative annals of the province and State. The 
South Carolinian lawyer or student of history of to-day 
finds himself constantly referred back to the statutes of 
this y^ear as the basis of most subsequent legislation of the 
State. Governor Craven's wisdom and diligence doubtless 
aided greatly^ in this achievement, and without the active 
support and countenance of so wise and beneficent a ruler 
it is not at all probable that so great a work could have 

1 MSS. Journal Commons; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 93; Hist. Sketches 
of So. Ca. (Rivers), 252. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 254. 



508 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

been accomplished. But the inspiration and labor of 
the great undertaking was another's. To Chief Justice 
Trott doubtless is due the credit and honor of the great 
compilation of laws enacted at this time. However un- 
scrupulous as a politician, corrupt and tyrannical as a 
judge, Trott was a profound lawyer, a scholar of great 
learning, and a most laborious and indefatigable worker. 
Resting for a while from political agitation, he had spent 
the time in compiling the laws of the province. For- 
tunately, it happened that so wise and able a man as 
Craven was now at the head of affairs, read}^ with his 
great influence to assist in securing the results of Trott's 
work by its enactment into laws. The work consisted of 
three parts : (1) The revision and amendment of several 
of the most important matters of recent legislation, and 
the enactment of measures in regard to the better ad- 
ministration of justice ; (2) the codification and adoption 
of so much of the statutory law of England as was suitable 
to the condition of the province ; and (3) the compilation 
of all previous laws of the colony. 

The first measure of Governor Craven's administra- 
tion was an additional act to those relating to the estab- 
lishment of religious worship in the province.^ There 
was a revision of the previous acts upon the subject, witli 
some new features. The first of these was a provision 
empowering commissioners to hear and settle all differ- 
ences concerning the election of ministers. The Church 
act of 1706 had provided that the rectors or ministers of 
the several parishes should be chosen by the majority of 
the inhabitants. This was a very important innovation, 
as it may be termed, upon the law of England under 
which the bishop or lay patron had the right of presenta- 
tion to benefices, and differing from those of the West 
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 366. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 509 

Indies and other colonies which gave the right to the 
Governor. It was probably the resnlt of the congrega- 
tional inflnence in the colony making itself felt in the 
establishment of the church, which it could not prevent. 
But in adopting this provision, in 1706, no method of 
settling questions which might arise at the election of 
ministers had been provided. This was now done. If 
the lay commissioners were not to be allowed to interfere 
with clergymen in any differences after their installation, 
they would at least reserve to themselves the right to 
decide all questions that might arise before ecclesiastical 
institution. In 1710, under the administration of Gibbes, 
an act had been passed, as we have seen, for the build- 
ing of the new brick cliurch at Charles Town, to be the 
parish church of St. Philip's ; provisions were now made 
for the appointment of commissioners for the purpose.^ 
It was in this act of 1712 that we find the recital of the 
establishment of a provincial librar}^ in 1700, and the 
mention of the deaths of five of the original commission- 
ers. New commissioners are named in the place of the 
deceased, and times of meeting appointed. That the 
library was then in active operation is shown by this pro- 
vision : — 

" XXV. Whereas by the said Act (i.e. 1700) all the inhabitants of 
this Province without any exception may have liberty to borrow any 
book out of the provincial library giving a receipt for the same, which 
unrestrained liberty hath already proved very prejudicial to the said 
library, several of the books being lost and others damnijfied and there- 
fore, for the preservation of the said library it will be necessary to 
lodge a discretional power in the person that keeps the same, to deny 
any person the loan of the book that he shall think will not take care 
of the same." 

To prevent further loss, the librarian was given a dis- 
cretionary power in the loan of l)ooks. The library was 
Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 366-376. 



510 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

kept in the parsonage belonging to St. Philip's Church, 
the minister of which was the librarian. 

An im})ortant provision of this act was the recognition 
of the jurisdiction of Dr. Compton, the Lord Bishop of 
London, and his successors, at least so far that upon the 
arrival of any minister I'ecommended by his Lordship or 
by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the sal- 
ary of such minister, he being chosen the rector or minister 
of any parish, should begin. 

Two very important measures were adopted in relation 
to schools. The original of the first of these, entitled 
" A71 act for the Encouragement of Learning^'' has been, 
unfortunately, mutilated, — one half of a leaf torn off. 
The preamble to it, which, however, remains, again refers 
to the fact that several sums of money had been given by 
well-disposed persons for building a free school, which 
could not then conveniently be done ; to supply which 
defect for the present, it was enacted that John Douglass 
should be master of a grammar school of Charles Town 
for teaching the Greek and Latin languages, and should 
choose an usher to assist him " in teaching the languages, 
reading, English, writing, arithmetick or such parts of 
the mathematicks as he is capable to teach." It also re- 
cited that Mr. Benjamin Dennis, having been sent over 
by the recommendation of the Society for the Propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, to be a schoolmaster for the parish 
of St. James, Goose Creek, had for a considerable time 
given great satisfaction, and was therefore worthy of con- 
sideration, and as, by reason of the neglect of many of his 
parishioners, sufficient provisions for his maintenance 
could not be made, which might discourage that honor- 
able society in sending over others, it thereupon provided 
for Mr. Dennis a salary of .£16 a year. As a further 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 376. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 511 

provision for Mr. Douglass, the schoolmaster in Cliarles 
Town, it was provided that he should receive £3 a 
year for each scholar to whom he taught the Greek and 
Latin tongue, and a proportional sum for a longer or 
shorter time, and for every scholar to whom lie taught 
English writing, arithmetic, or any other part of the 
mathematics, such a sum as should be agreed upon be- 
tween the master and learner himself or any other in his 
behalf; two-thirds of the money received should be for 
the master, John Douglass; the other third part for the 
usher. 

This act was adopted on the 7th of June ; but on the 
12th of December, with that of 1710, it was repealed, 
and in their places another and more elaborate measure 
was enacted. This was entitled "^n act for Founding 
and Erecting a Free ScJiool in diaries Town for the use of 
the Inhabitants of the Province of South Carolina.''^ ^ The 
same commissioners were reappointed and incorporated 
under this act as in that of 1710, witli the exception of 
two changes, — Colonel Rhett and the Rev. Robert Maule 
were substituted for John Abraham Motte, who was dead, 
and the Rev. Alexander Wood, who had left the province. 
These commissioners were to meet annually and choose 
officers, and twice a year or oftener for other purposes. 
The Hon. Charles Craven was the first President. They 
were to receive all gifts and legacies appropriated to a 
free school, and to take up land and build liouses for the 
teachers. John Douglass was to be the first master of 
the school, " bg the name and stile of Preceptor or Teacher 
of Grammar and other the Arts and Sciences to be taught in 
the Free School at Charles Toivn for the Province of South 
Carolina.'''' The commissioners were empowered upon his 
death or departure to supply his place. Though Land- 
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 389. 



512 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

grave Morton, the leading dissenter in the colony, was 
one of the commissioners, the act provided that the mas- 
ter of the school was to be of the Church of England 
and to conform to the same. He was to be capable to 
teach the learned languages, — that is to say, Latin and 
Greek tongues, — and to catechise and instruct the youth 
in the principles of the Christian religion as professed in 
the Church of England. The commissioners were to pre- 
scribe rules for the government of the school. Any per- 
son giving j£20 might nominate one scholar to be taught 
free for five years. It was provided that in consideration 
of the schoolmaster's being allowed the use of the lands 
and dwelling-houses, and the salary of <£100 per annum, 
twelve scholars should be taught free, besides one for 
any person contributing £20. For any other scholar the 
master was to be paid at the rate of X4 current money 
per annum. If the number of scholars became more than 
one man could well manage, the commissioners might 
appoint an usher at a salary not exceeding X50 per 
annum, and 30s. for every scholar under his charge besides 
the free scholars. And because, said the act, it is neces- 
sary to give encouragement to a fit person who will un- 
dertake to teach the youth of the province to write, and 
also the principles of vulgar aritlimetic and merchant's 
accounts, it Avas provided that a fit person should be 
appointed to teach those branches, and also the art of 
navigation and surveying and other useful and practical 
parts of the mathematics, and for liis encouragement 
was to be paid at the same rate as the usher. Schools 
might also be established in each of the other parishes, 
the schoolmasters of which were to have £10 per annum, 
and X12 current money were allowed for the building of 
a parish school. 

Another most important measure of this time was the pas- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 513 

sage of '^A7i act for the more effectual preveyitiiig the spreading 
of contagious disteynpers.'^ ^ In 1698 an act had forbidden 
vessels to pass to the east of Sullivan's Island one mile, 
under penalty of being fired on by the gunner and paying 
a fine, and the pilot was required to ascertain from the 
captain if any contagious disorders were on board, under 
penalty of ^50.^ This subject was now again taken up, 
and in the act mentioned a quarantine law was put in 
operation. A health officer was appointed, one Gilbert 
Guttery, who was empowered and required to board all 
vessels as soon as they came over the bar of Charles Town, 
and to make strict inquiry into the health of the place 
from which such vessel last came, and of all persons on 
board, and of the causes of death of any who had died 
during the voyage. He was empowered to send any 
person on board ashore to the pest-house on Sullivan's 
Island ; and in case of death by malignant disorders hav- 
ing occurred during the voyage, to order the vessel to lie 
off Sullivan's Island for twenty days. The act was con- 
fined to the port of Charles Town, but the Governor might 
extend its provisions to otlier ports. 

'-'-An act for the better observation of the Lord's Day^ 
commonly called Sunday^"" ^ illustrates the influence of the 
puritanical spirit of the times, even upon the people of 
the Church of England in Carolina. '' Whereas," it said, 
" there is nothing more acceptable to God than the true 
and sincere service and worship of him, according to his 
holy will, and that the holy keeping of the Lord's Day 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 382. 

Quarantine measures were first adopted in America as follows: 
Massachusetts in 1648, South Carolina in 1608, Pennsylvania in 1699, 
Rhode Island in 1711, New Haini)shire in 1714, and New York in 1745. 
Supplement to Encyclopedia Britannica, title " Quarantine." 

2 Ibid., 152. 

3 Ibid., 396. 

2l 



514 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

is a principal part of the true service of God whicli in 
many places of the Province is so much prophanecl and 
neglected by disorderly persons," it was therefore en- 
acted that all persons whatsoever should on every Lord's 
Day apply themselves to the observation of the same, by 
exercising themselves thereon in the duties of piety and 
true religion, publicly and privately ; and, having no rea- 
sonable or lawful excuse, should resort to their parish 
church or some meeting or assembly of religious worship 
allowed by the laws of the province, and there abide 
orderly and soberly during the time of prayer and preach- 
ing on pain and forfeiture for every neglect the sum of 
five shillings current money of the province. No trades- 
man, artificer, workman, laborer, or other person should 
do any worldly labor or work of the ordinary callings 
upon that day (works of necessity or charity only ex- 
cepted), under a like forfeiture. Goods publicly sold on 
Sunday were forfeited. No person was allowed to travel 
on Sunday by land or by Avater except it be to go to the 
place of worship and to return again, or to visit and relieve 
the sick, or unless belated the night before, and then to travel 
no further than to some convenient inn or place of shelter 
for that day, or upon some extraordinary occasion, for which 
a person should be allowed to do so under the hand of some 
Justice of the Peace. No sports or pastimes were allowed. 
No public house was allowed to entertain any guests on 
the Lord's Day except lodgers or strangers. For the 
better keeping of good order, the churchwardens and 
constables were required once in the forenoon and once 
in the afternoon, in time of divine service, to walk through 
the town and to suppress all offences against the act. If 
any master or overseer should cause or encourage a ser- 
vant or slave to work on the Lord's Day, he should for- 
feit the sum of five shillings for every offence. Nothing 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 515 

in the act, however, was to extend to tlie prohibiting of 
dressing of meats in families or public houses, nor to the 
buying and selling of milk before nine o'clock in the 
morning, or after four o'clock in the afternoon. 

Two important measures in regard to the administra- 
tion of justice were enacted. One was ^^ An act fo?' settling 
the titles of the inhabitants of this Province to their posses- 
sions in their estates ivithin the same^ and for limitations of 
actions^ and for avoiding suits at law/^ ^ By this act all pos- 
sessions or titles to lands for seven years without lawful 
interruption were made good against all claims whatso- 
ever, and the times for bringing actions of all kinds were 
limited. The other was ^An act for the better securing the 
payment of debts due from any person inhabiting and resid- 
ing beyond the sea or elseivhere without the limits of this 
Province^"" etc.^ This act, known as the Foreign Attach- 
ment Act^ was a revision of the first act upon the subject 
passed in 1691 under Sothell's administration, and pro- 
vided means of seizing an absent or absconding debtor's 
property, and subjecting it to the payment of creditors. 
It remained the law upon the subject until the adoption 
of the new code of procedure in 1872. 

The poor laws of the province were revised and re- 
modelled. The vestries of the several parishes were em- 
powered yearly to nominate two or more overseers, who, 
with the wardens of the parishes, were charged with the 
ordering and relieving of the poor, out of such money and 
fines as should be given for their use, which, if not suffi- 
cient, was to be supplied by assessments, which the ves- 
tries were authorized to make. The main features of this 
act were taken from the English poor laws.^ 

Another very important measure was ^An act for ap- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 583. 

2 Ibid., 588. 3 Ibid, 593-60G. 



516 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

pointing an agent to solicit the affairs of this Province in the 
Kingdom of Great Britain.^'' ^ By this act the important 
policy which prevailed in most of the colonies of maintain- 
ing an agent in London to watch and guard the interests 
of the province before the Proprietors and the Board of 
Trade Avas adopted in Carolina ; and the agency thus 
established became of great consequence in the subsequent 
history of the province, especially during the approach- 
ing revolution, and continued scarcely less so under 
the Royal Government after the overthrow of that of 
the Proprietors. 

The Board of Trade in England were pressing more 
and more the enforcement of the navigation laws in the 
colonies, and especially in Carolina, and watching for in- 
fringements of them as causes upon which could be based 
a forfeiture of the charter. Rice and naval stores, the 
principal exports of the colony, were among the enumer- 
ated articles which were forbidden to be shipj^ed for sale 
except to England. On the other hand, bounties were 
offered to the importers of pitch, tar, turpentine, and 
other naval stores. It was deemed of great importance 
therefore to have an agent in England to watch the inter- 
ests of the colony, to procure a continuance of the bounty, 
and, if possible, to procure also permission for Carolina to 
export naval stores and rice to Spain, Portugal, Africa, 
and other places in America and the West India Islands. 
By this act the Hon. Abel Kethellby,^ of the Inner Temple, 
who had been made a Landgrave, was appointed agent. 
His instructions were to procure first the continuance of 
the bounty, and so earnest was the Assembly in regard to 
this matter, that he was charged not to let his solicitation 
for a free exportation of rice interfere with the bounty 
on the naval stores. A committee, consisting of Charles 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 600. 

2 This name is so spelled in this statute. Elsewhere it is spelled Kettleby, 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 517 

Hart, Arthur Middleton, and Samuel Eveleigli, Esqs., Mr. 
William Gibbons, and Henry Wigginton, Esq., was ap- 
pointed to put the act into execution, and to correspond 
with the agent from time to time, sending him instruc- 
tions. The agent was to be paid X150 current money as 
an encouragement to undertake the agency, and £150 
more as soon as an act of Parliament should be passed for 
a longer continuance of the bounty to the importers of 
naval stores to England from this province. He was to 
receive £500 as soon as an act of Parliament should be 
passed permitting a free exportation of rice from the prov- 
ince to Spain, Portugal, and all places in Africa and 
America, both continent and islands, and a proportional 
sum for as many of these places to which he could procure 
an allowance of such exportation. Two years after, the 
allowance of the agent was made <£200 currency annually, 
and the committee of correspondence was reduced to 
three, — Hon. Samuel Eveleigh, Colonel William Rhett, 
and Arthur Middleton, Esq. 

It will be remembered that during Governor Ludwell's 
administration the Proprietors had disallowed the enact- 
ment of a habeas corpus act upon the ground that it was 
not necessary to reenact any statute of England, as such 
statute applied to this colony proprio vigore under the 
charter. 1 That theory was now abandoned, and under 
Craven the habeas corpus act of King Charles the Second 
was formally reenacted.^ Then followed the adoption of 
Trott's great work, — a general codification of the English 
statutes, applicable to the condition of the new country, 
and a compilation of all colonial acts then in force. 

This was for the time a stupendous work. There liad 
been before this several instances of compilation of colo- 
nial statutes in other provinces, a brief mention of which 
1 Ante, p. 247. '^ Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, :]99. 



518 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in this connection will not be without interest here.^ In 
Massachusetts, Nathan Ward had compiled the perpetual 
laws enacted by the General Court as early as 1641. 
His work was entitled the '' Body of Liberties," sometimes 
called '' Liberties," or " Book of Liberties. " There were also 
several revisions by the Plymouth Colony General Court — 
1636, 1658, and 1671. In Virginia, the laws in force in 
1662 were collected out of the Assembly Records, digested 
into one volume, and revised and confirmed by the Gen- 
eral Assembly, and in 1684 a complete collection of all 
the laws in force, with an Alphabetical Table annexed, 
was made. In 1673 was published the book of General 
Laws for the people within the jurisdiction of Connecti- 
cut, collected out of the Records of the General Court, 
then lately revised with emendations and additions estab- 
lished and published by the General Court of Connecticut 
holden at Hartford in October, 1672. In New York there 
had been a collection of the laws from 1691 to 1694, 
and in 1710 the laws as they were enacted by the Gov- 
ernor's Council and General Assembly from 1691 to 1709 
were compiled and published. Following Trott's collec- 
tion of the laws of South Carolina in 1712, which we 
are now considering, the laws of Pennsylvania, collected 
into one volume, were published by the order of the 
Goverjior and Assembly of the province in 1714 ; there 
was a collation of the laws of New Hampshire in 1716 ; 
and a partial collection of the laws of New Jersey was 
made in 1717. These works were all compilations, or col- 
lations as they were sometimes termed, of the colonial 

1 These instances are compiled from The Charlemagne Tower Collec- 
tion of Colonial Laws, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1890. The 
author is also indebted for information upon this subject to Hon. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, to Mr. 
W. P. Upham, Newtonville, Mass., and to Mr. William Brook-Rawle of 
Philadelphia, Pa. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 519 

statutes and laws in force in the respective provinces at 
the time of their collection, and were made either by 
private individuals or by enactments of the colonial legis- 
latures. And such was a part of Trott's work — ^that 
relating to the compilation of the laws of the province ; 
but far the most important was the codification of the 
English statutes, to which we can find no other like and 
contemporaneous work in America. This work was more 
than a compilation. It w^as a codification embodied in a 
single act. The act was entitled ^'•A'ti act to put in force in 
this Province the several statutes of the Kingdom of Eng- 
land or South Britain therein particularly mentioned.^'' ^ 
It comprised an actual revision of the whole body of the 
statutory law of England, and the selection from it of 
such statutes not only as were then applicable to the 
condition of the colony at the time, but which would 
become so on its further development. Tiie statutes se- 
lected, and modified when needful, were one hundred and 
sixty-seven in number, covering one hundred and eighty 
pages royal octavo of the second volume of the Statutes 
at Large. Strange to say, the preamble to this most impor- 
tant act, which is unusually brief, gives no intimation of 
the magnitude of the measure and assigns the most in- 
adequate reasons for its enactment. The occasion for 
the act stated is that " many statute laws of the Kingdom 
of England or South Britain by reason of the different 
way of agriculture and the differing production of the 
earth of this Province from that of England are alto- 
gether useless, and many others (wliicli otherwise are 
very apt and good) either by reason of their limitation 
to particular places or because in themselves they are 
only executive by such nominal offices as are not in nor 
suitable for the constitution of this government are thereby 

1 /Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 401. 



520 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

become impracticable here." With this very unsatisfac- 
tory exphinatioii of the occasion of the work, the act 
provided that the statutes or parts of statutes of the 
kingdom of EngLand enumerated in an elaborate table 
annexed, consisting of statutes from the time of the great 
charter in the ninth year of King Henry the Third, whicli 
Avas itself specifically mentioned, to the eighth year of 
Queen Anne, should be of the same force in the province 
as if they had been enacted in the same. The text of the 
enumerated statutes was given in full and included in the 
enactment. It was also provided in the same act that all 
and every part of the common law of England, when the 
same Avas not altered by the enumerated acts or inconsist- 
ent with the particular constitutions and customs and 
laws of the province, and excepting such as had relation 
to ancient tenures which were taken away by acts of 
Parliament of 12 Charles II, c. 24, doing away with the 
court of Wards and Liveries and Tenures in cajjite and 
by knight's service, was to be of full force in the province. 
There was also excepted that part of the common law 
which related to matters ecclesiastical which were incon- 
sistent wdth or repugnant to the settlement of the Church 
of England in the province as tliere established. The 
Gov^ernor Avith his Council were constituted a Court of 
Chancery, with the same powers as those exercised by 
the I^ord Chancellor or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of 
Great Britain, in England. The Courts of Record in the 
province were to have the powers of the King's or Queen's 
courts. All the statute laws of England not enumerated 
in the act (such only excepted which related to her 
Majesty's customs and acts of trade and navigation) 
were declared impracticable. It was provided that noth- 
ing in these acts should be construed to take away or 
abridge the liberty of conscience, or any other liberty in 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 521 

matters ecclesiastical, from any of tlie inhabitants of the 
province, but that the same should still be enjoyed according 
to the powers and privileges granted to the true and absolute 
Lords Proprietors by their charter from the Crown, and the 
several acts of Assembly of the province then in force. 

A remarkable circumstance in connection with this act 
is the undue haste in which a measure of such great im- 
portance was hurried through the legislature. It appears 
by the journal that it was read in the Assembly for the 
first time on Wednesday, the 26th of November, 1712, and 
immediately passed by that body with some amendments. 
It is not mentioned by whom this act was introduced. It 
was sent at once to the Governor and Council. That 
body hesitated to act so inconsiderately upon so grave and 
important a measure, and returned it with a message on 
the 28 til, saying : — 

" We take it to be a bill of that consequence that it 
will require your, as well as our diligent care to over- 
look all the statutes, that we may know whether all or 
any part of them are adapted to the nature and constitu- 
tion of the government of the province. We give to you 
as our advice and opinion that the best way for both 
Houses to be satisfied in a case of this consequence will be 
to commit the bill to a committee of both Houses to ex- 
amine the said statutes in which we shall readily join with 
you in appointing a committee to join a committee of 
yours." This suggestion of the Governor and Council 
was at first accepted by the House, and a committee 
appointed to examine the bill and the several English 
statutes with instructions to report at tlie next session of 
the General Assembly ; or if in case that Assembly slicndd 
sit no more, the committee were to re})ort to the next sit- 
ting of the succeeding General Assembly. What occurred 
to change this course of proceeding, and to demand im- 



522 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

mediate action upon the bill, is not disclosed in the journal, 
nor is there any other contemporaneous statement. The 
entries in the journal merely show that tlie bill was read 
a second time on December 5th, and a third time on the 
11th, and that it was ratified on the 12th. The committee 
probably shrank from so arduous a labor as the revision 
of these statutes, or perhaps felt themselves incompetent 
to the task, and determined to accept Trott's work as it 
stood. It is, perhaps, after all as well that they did so. 
Their crude attempts to amend may have rather marred 
than improved a compilation Avhich has remained the 
groundwork of all subsequent general legislation in South 
Carolina for nearly two centuries. 

There had as yet been no collection of the statutory 
laws of the province, as had been made in Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and Virginia. This want Chief Justice Trott 
now also supplied. He made a collection of all the statu- 
tory enactments he could find, and had them " digested into 
an exact and easy method," and " a double transcript of the 
same, with marginal notes, references, and tables, fitted for 
the press." This work was laid before the General Assem- 
bly, approved and adopted by it, and Trott was allowed 
<£250 for his copy. It was also enacted ''that the body of 
the Laws of this Province, being collected by the said 
Nicholas Trott, shall be forthwith transmitted, either to 
London, New Yorke, or Boston in New England, there to 
have four hundred books of the Laws printed and bound, 
at the charge of the publick and to be paid out of the 
publick Treasury of the Province, and to be transmitted 
at the risque of the publick." Further, it was provided 
"that the said book of the Laws when printed as afore- 
said be and shall be taken deemed and held a good and 
lawful Statute Book of this Province in all Courts and 
upon all occasions whatsoever as the Statute Book of 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 523 

the Laws of Great Britain is deemed held and taken in 
that kingdom," etc.^ Owing, probably, to the financial 
difficulties of the province, the Indian wars, the troubles 
with the pirates, and to the revolution which soon took 
place, overthrowing the Proprietary Government, which 
revolution was brought about curiously enough in a great 
measure by his own tyrannical and corrupt conduct, the 
publication of Trott's collection was not made for more 
than twenty years after. The manuscript volume, how- 
ever, now in the Secretary of State's office in Columbia, 
remains a monument to his patient industry and ability. 
It was not printed until 1736. 

Instead of the crude, fanciful, and extravagant Consti- 
tutions of Shaftesbury and Locke, Craven and Trott had 
now substituted a well-digested and tried system of law 
suited to the condition of the people of the colony, and 
fulfilling the requirement of the charter that the laws of 
the province should be as near as conveniently might be 
to the laws and customs of England. 

It was, however, during this year that the unfortunate 
experiment was made of establishing a public bank. In 
1702, in order to pay the expenses occasioned by the expe- 
dition to St. Augustine, the Assembly authorized the issue 
of stamped bills of credit to be sunk in three years by a 
duty on liquors, skins, and furs. This was the first paper 
money that appeared in the province, and was the origin 
of current money mentioned in various acts of Assembly, 
and of what was called old currency to the end of the 
Royal Government. It was denominated current money 
to distinguish it from sterling money of England, very 
little of which was ever in circulation, the balance of trade 
being always in favor of the mother country. 

The credit of this currency was at first equal to sterling 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 002. 



524 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and so continued for about six years, but afterwards depre- 
ciated. The necessities of the government continually 
increasing, requiring fresh supplies of a medium of value 
for circulation to defray the expenses incurred by the 
Indian and Spanish wars and other exigencies of the 
colony, succeeding emissions of bills of credit took place. 
The first emissions were X4000 in 1706,i and X8000 in 
1707.2 But in 1712 a new and plausible project was 
adopted, which, however, contrary to the expectations of 
its friends, diminished the value of the bills. Interest 
was then ten per cent, and lands were increasing in value 
from the successful culture of rice. These circumstances 
suggested the idea of a land bank as an easy and practi- 
cable mode of obtaining money, and of supporting the 
credit of paper. The enormous issue of £52,000 was 
made in bills of credit, called bank bills, to be loaned 
out at interest to such of the inhabitants as could give 
the requisite security and agreed to pay interest annually 
in addition to the twelfth part of the principal. This 
paper currency might be legally tendered in payment of 
debts. On their emission the rate of exchange and the 
price of produce quickly increased. In the first year it 
advanced to 150 and in the second year to 200 per cent. 
A further depreciation resulted from a further emission of 
£15,000 by the Assembly in 1716 to assist in defraying 
the expenses of the Yamassee war. In ten years after 
the bank was established, — 1722, — it was fixed by law at 
four for one.^ This bank act excited the remonstrance 
of the London merchants, and the Proprietors severely 
censured Governor Craven for its enactment.* 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 274. 2 /^^v?., 302. 

3 Ibid., 389, note, 711 ; Introduction to Brevard's Digest, xi ; Rarnsay's 
Ilist. of So. Ca., vol. II, 162. 

* Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 257; Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 207. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

1713-16 

Immediately upon Colonel Barnwell's return, the Ind- 
ians in North Carolina resumed hostilities with greater 
rage and more atrocious cruelties. The Governor of that 
province again appealed to Virginia and South Carolina 
for assistance.^ Another expedition was quickly organized, 
and, as before stated, the command would doubtless have 
been given to Colonel Barnwell, but he was still disabled 
by his wounds. 2 In his absence, it was entrusted to 
Colonel James Moore, son of the late Governor of that 
name, who had been a famous Indian fighter. The forces 
of the new expedition were ordered to rendezvous at the 
Congaree, and Governor Craven went up to inspect their 
equipment and to encourage them. Colonel Moore ad- 
vanced with 40 white men and about 800 Indians, and after 
a toilsome march arrived on the Neuse. Governor Pollock 
of North Carolina had, in the meanwhile, been gaining 
time by negotiations with the Indian chief, Tom Blount. 
About the middle of January, 1713, Colonel Moore ad- 
vanced upon the enemy, but was detained by a heavy fall 
of snow until the 4th of February. The Indians had built 
a fort near the village of Snow Hill, the seat of Greene 
County, which they called Nahucke. Into this, on Moore's 
approach, they retired, and on the 20th of March he laid 

1 Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 544. 

2 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 254, note. 

525 



526 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

siege to the place, and in a few days became master of it. 
A large number of the Indians were killed, and 800 pris- 
oners fell into the hands of the conquerors. Moore lost 
but 58 men, of whom 36 were Indians. The South Caro- 
lina Indians, acting precisely as they had done under 
Barnwell in the previous expedition, secured as many 
slaves among the captured as they could, and forthwith 
set out for Charles Town, but 180 remained with Moore. 
Small as was this force, Moore, in conference with Pollock, 
determined to keep it in the settlement, and to follow up 
the blow with another. But the enemy were too much 
intimidated to afford an opportunity. Such as escaped 
from Nahucke fled to another fort about forty miles dis- 
tant, but did not dare to await there Moore's approach. 
They abandoned the fort. The greater part of them as- 
cended the Roanoke, and finally, leaving the province, 
joined the Five Nations of the Iroquois in New York, 
thenceforth making the Sixth. 

There seems to have been some fatality attending the 
position of Palatine of Carolina. Since the long presi- 
dency of Earl Craven, from 1681 to 1697, during the 
seventeen years which had elapsed, i.e. from 1697 to 1714, 
there had been four Palatines, — Earl of Bath, Lord Gran- 
ville, Lord Craven, and the Duke of Beaufort, each of 
whom died in office. The Duke of Beaufort had been 
Palatine but three years, when, on the 5tli of July, 1714, 
his death was announced, and John Lord Carteret, grand- 
son of Sir George Carteret, the first Proprietor of that 
name, was chosen to succeed him.^ This Avas the statesman 
afterwards celebrated as the Earl of Granville, to which 
title he succeeded upon the death of his mother. Lady 
Grace Granville, the daughter of John Granville of Bath, 
who had been Palatine from 1697 to 1702. Lord Carteret 

1 Coll. Hist. Sue. of So. Ca., vol. 1, 186. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 527 

was at this time but twenty-four years of age ; but on the 
threshold of his brilliant career.^ He was to be the last 
Palatine of Carolina. 

The announcement of the death of Duke of Beaufort, 
the Palatine, Avas followed soon after by that of the death 
of Queen Anne, which took place on the 1st of August, 
1714. On the 4th of September, the Lords Proprietors 
sent out orders for the proclamation of King George I.^ 
The Proprietary Government under the charter had begun 
very nearly with the restoration of the House of Stuart ; 
it was to outlast the rule of that race by but a few years. 
Queen Anne and her war were no more. Peace had been 
established in Europe. The proclamation of the new 
King and the oath of allegiance were not made, says 
Rivers, with the indifference formerly so remarkable in 
the colony, but with the ardor of those almost in sight of 
their monarch from whom they looked for relief and hap- 
piness. Indeed, says that author, in their warmth of 
loyalty they forgot the rules of climax. " We, a people," 
said they, " separated by the immense ocean, can't be 
blessed with your royal presence. But, like the sun 
who sheds his glorious beams on all, Ave may feel the 
favorable influence of your government. Like Augustus, 
may your reign be long in peace ; may you be loved at 
home and feared abroad ; and when Providence calls you 
from that earthly diadem that now environs your royal 

1 " Lord Granville, they say, is dying. When he dies the ablest head 
in England dies too, take him for all in all." — Chesterfield to his Soiij 
December 13, 1762. Walpole pronounced him to be a greater genius than 
Sir R. Walpole, Mansfield, or Chatham. — Memoirs of George II, III, 85. 
" I feel a pride," said Chatham, " in declaring that to his patronage, to 
his friendsliip and instruction I owe whatever I am," — Pai^l. Hist., XVI, 
1097. See " Sketch of his Character," by Lecky, England in the Eigh- 
teenth Century, vol. T, 406. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 186. 



528 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

head may there never be wanting, even to latest posterity, 
one of the illnstrious House of Hanover to fill the British 
throne."! 

Events were fast hurrying on the colonists of Carolina 
to appeal to the protection of the new King from the foes 
against whom the Lords Proprietors could afford them no 
assistance, and forcing them to ask to be taken under the 
direct care and rule of his own Royal Government. The 
Indian outbreak in North Carolina had been suppressed ; 
but an uprising soon followed in this colony which carried 
its desolation and horrors almost to the gates of the 
town. 

Chief Justice Trott was in England at this time. Upon 
the completion of his work upon the codification of the 
laws of the province, he had applied to the Lords Proprie- 
tors for leave of absence for his affairs in Great Britain, 
and on the 13th of August, 1713, leave Avas granted him, 
his commission and salary to continue during his absence; 
the Governor and Council were to appoint some one to 
act in his place in the meanwhile. ^ He does not appear to 
have immediately availed himself of the leave, and it was 
not until the next year that we find him in London. 
There he soon thoroughly ingratiated himself with the 
Proprietors, attained the most complete ascendency over 
them, and obtained from them the most extraordinary 
grant of powers — powers greater, indeed, than those of 
the Governor himself, and this notwithstanding that the 
Proprietors had at this time so excellent a Governor in 
Carolina as Craven. On the day on which they ordered the 
proclamation of his Majesty King George, the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1714, they issued orders making Nicholas Trott 
a member of the Council, without whose presence there 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 256; Commons Journals. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 1G2. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETAUY GOVERNME^IT 529 

should be no quorum for the transaction of business, and 
without wliose consent practically no law should be passed. 
He was to be consulted by their Lordships upon every 
proposed measure, and on his part he agreed to carry on 
a regular correspondence with their Secretary, and to give 
him the best intelligence with respect to their provincial 
affairs. They added to the power, dignity, and emolu- 
ments of the office of Chief Justice. They empowered 
him to make his own Provost Marshal of the court ; in- 
creased his salary to ^£100 per annum, and gave him c£100 
for proclaiming the King ; ordered an official costume for 
him, as Chief Justice, and twenty constable's staves to be 
prepared, with the King's arms on the top and the arms 
of the province underneath. They ordered two tran- 
scripts of his compilation of laws to be made, one to be 
forwarded to them and one to remain in his hands, for 
which the Treasurer of the province was to pay £80. 
Sir John Colleton appointed him his deputy, and the 
Proprietors at the same time appointed his son-in-law, 
William Rhett, then Speaker of the Assembly, Receiver 
General.^ 

Armed with these great powers, Trott returned to 
Carolina. The Governor, Council, and Assembly could 
not believe that the Proprietors had been guilty of such a 
piece of folly and tyranny as to ordain that thenceforth 
the Governor and four councillors should not have power 
to pass laws unless Trott was one of the quorum ! They 
required that Mr. Trott should produce the strange letter, 
and it was accordingly read to them. " A power in one 
man," said Craven, "not heard of before!" "An ex- 
orbitant power," replied the Assembly, " unheard of in 
any of the British dominions, for aught we know in the 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 10-2-186; Hewatt's Hist, of So. 
Ca.y vol. I, 209; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 250. 
2 m 



530 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAKOLINA 

whole world ! " Mr. Speaker Rhett dissented to the 
address of the Assembly to the Governor upon the sub- 
ject, which contained the expression of a liope that Craven 
would not resign because of the want of confidence the 
Lords Proprietors indicated. Tlie Assembly refused to 
allow the dissent to be entered in the journal. "We can't 
but admire," they said to the Governor, " that any person 
acquainted with your acceptable administration should be 
so forsaken of all divine influences — should so abandon 
his reason, so diametrically contradict the common sense 
and the unquestionable experience of tlie more general 
sentiments of the whole province as to attempt unjustly to 
misrepresent your Honor to the Lords Proprietors."^ 

Mr. Joseph Boone, who, it is to be supposed, had in 
some way purged his contempt of the House in the mat- 
ter of his libel upon Governor Johnson, was now sent 
back to England to protest against this extraordinary 
grant of power to Trott, and with him was sent Mr. 
Richard Berresford, a churchman. They were not only 
to protest to the Proprietors against the veto power of 
Trott and his appointment at will of Provost Marshals, 
but to endeavor also to obtain redress in several other 
matters. They were to obtain, if possible, some measures 
for settling the price of lands on a lasting foundation ; 
for the allowance of the bank act ; to secure Craven's 
continuance in office ; to secure the printing of the laws 
of the province ; the alloAvance of County Courts in every 
county; leave for laying out Beaufort in lots at the dis- 
posal of the Governor ; they were given discretionary 
authority to confer upon any other matter. Their in- 
structions concluded with this significant clause : " And 
in case the i:)roprietors do not redress our grievances after 
all necessary measures have been taken Avith them, we 
^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 258. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 531 

direct you to apply yourselves to a superior power in 
order that the same may be redressed."^ 

And now there was to fall upon the province a most ter- 
rible calamity. Some years before the Yamassees had de- 
serted the Spaniards who had executed some of their chiefs, 
and, with apparent implacable hatred against their former 
friends, removed to South Carolina to the territory lying 
near Port Royal. During the whole of Queen Anne's 
war they were the allies of the Carolinians, and in re- 
venge for their own wrongs, marauding bands continually 
went forth to the southward to lurk in the woods near 
St. Augustine, or make midnight attacks upon unguarded 
houses. The honor of the party was at stake, they con- 
sidered, if they returned without scalps, Indian slaves, or 
Spanish captives whom they afterwards put to death with 
every revolting circumstance of inhumanity and savage 
torture. While availing themselves of the alliance of 
these Indians, endeavoring at the same time to check 
their barbarities, the Carolinians offered them a reward 
of five pounds for every Spanish prisoner brought un- 
harmed to Charles Town, whom they returned in safety 
to their friends upon the payment of their ransom. 

But on the other hand, the regulations in regard to the 
Indian trade had not been properly enforced during Queen 
Anne's war, and there had doubtless been abuses which the 
commissioner on the reestablishment of peace had endeav- 
ored to remedy and restrain. Besides occasional encroach- 
ments on their lands, the abuses consisted in fraudulent 
transactions in buying skins and captives, the seizure of 
Indian property on pretence of debt, and the demand of 
exorbitant prices of articles of traffic — contraband rum in- 
cluded, the wrongful detention in bondage of many who 
claimed to be free, personal ill treatment, immoralities, and 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 258; MSS. Journals. 



532 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLIKA 

the instigation of feuds. The nature of many abuses, and 
the rehictance of the Indians in seeking a formal trial before 
commissioners perhaps hundreds of miles away, rendered 
impossible the satisfactory adjustment of difficulties how- 
ever wise the laws might be that made to that end ; while 
on the other hand, anxiety on account of debts justly due, 
retaliation for injuries, cherished enmities, and a thirst for 
bloody revenge had not wholly ceased to exist at any period 
throughout a long series of years. Whatever were the 
grievances of the Yamassees, it was evident they had been 
encouraged by the intrigues of the Spaniards ; for on the 
day they began their outbreak against the English, they 
sent all their women and children to St. Augustine for 
protection, and on their defeat, retreated thither them- 
selves with scalps and plunder, and were received as in 
triumph with the ringing of bells and salutes of artillery.^ 

For some time before the outbreak, it had been noticed 
that the chief warriors of the Yamassees made frequent 
visits to St. Augustine, and returned with presents of 
hats and jackets, and with knives, hatchets, firearms, and 
ammunition. 2 They partook of food with the Governor, 
and renewed by ceremonies their friendship and alle- 
giance. Yet so sure were the Carolinians of the antipathy 
of the whole Yamassee nation to the Spaniards, that they 
anticipated no danger to themselves. 

It was customary for the traders to court the favor of 
some influential chieftain among the Indians, with whom 
in some instances, savages though they were, no danger, 
difficulty, or personal sacrifice could weaken the holy 
claims of friendship. One of these, Sanute, had become 
the friend of John Fraser, a Scotch Highlander, who lived 
and traded among his people. Sanute had been to St. 

' Reports, Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 854. 
2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 192. 



UNDER THE PROPIUETARY GOVERNMENT 533 

Augustine, and on his return he brought some sweet herbs 
to his friend's house, and bruising them in a basin of 
water, requested the privilege of washing therewith the 
face of Mrs. Eraser, as a testimony of his sincere friend- 
ship ; and placing then his hands upon his breast, assured 
her that all in his heart she should for the future know. 
About nine days before hostilities began, he appeared 
again and told her a terrible slaughter of all the English 
was determined upon, and Avould take place as soon as 
the bloody stick, the emblem of war, should be returned 
by the Creeks who, with the Yamassees, the Cherokees, 
and many other nations, were uniting with the Spaniards, 
who had assured them that though peace now existed, yet 
soon war would be declared by Spain against the English. 
Sanute then urged Mrs. Eraser and her husband to fly 
Avith their child in all haste to Charles Town and offered 
them the use of his own canoe. Placing his hand upon 
his heart, he declared he had told them all he knew ; if 
still they would not go, he promised to save them from 
torture by claiming the last office of a friend in taking 
their lives with his own hands. Eraser doubted ; but his 
wife being terrified, he hastened with her and most of his 
effects to Charles Town, unfortunately without communi- 
cating to others the intelligence he had received. ^ 

Other intimations of the approaching danger, spreading 
through the province, induced Governor Craven to dis- 
patch Captain Nairne, agent for Indian affairs, and Mr. 
John Cochran, gentlemen well acquainted with the 
Indians, to know the cause of their discontent. These 
agents went at once to the chief warriors at Pocotaligo, 

1 The family tradition, however, has always been that Fraser extended 
the information, but that his friends and neighbors, like himself, doubted 
its truth. They did not act upon it, as the importunities of his wife in- 
duced him to do for her sake. 



534 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and offered speedy satisfaction for any injuries of which 
they might complain. The Indians feigned a friendly 
disposition, at night prepared a good supper for their 
visitors, and Captain Nairne and his party went to sleep 
in apparent tranquillity. But at break of day April 15, 
1715, the massacre began. The round-house or council- 
room was beset. Captain Nairne, John Wright, and Thomas 
Ruffly were murdered. Mr. Cochran, his wife, and four 
children were at first kept prisoners and afterwards slain; 
Seaman Burroughs, a captain of militia, a strong and 
active man, rushed through the midst of the assailants 
and escaped, though wounded on the cheek. Swimming 
the river and running several miles, he gave the alarm to 
the planters in the neighborhood of Port Royal. In the 
meantime the houses of all the traders and other whites 
in Pocotaligo were attacked, and more than ninety per- 
sons there, and on adjacent plantations, fell victims to the 
fury of the savages. 

The Indians divided themselves into two parties ; one 
attacked Port Royal and the other St. Bartholomew's. 
Fortunately, a merchant ship happened to be in Port 
Royal River, on board of which the Rev. Mr. Guy, 
with most of the inhabitants of St. Helena, about 800 in 
number, took refuge by the timely warning of Mr. Bur- 
roughs. While oidy a few families were here massacred, 
in St. Bartholomew's about 100 people fell into the hands 
of the Indians who came down as far as Stono, burning 
churches and houses in their way. The Rev. Mr. 
Osborn and some others escaped to Charles Town. Mr. 
William Bray, his wife and children, and several others, 
finding friends among the Indians, were at first spared ; 
but while attempting to escape were all put to death. ^ 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca.^ vol. I, 218 ; Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 158-161; Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 258-264. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 535 

Governor Craven, in this terrible calamity, showed him- 
self as bold and vigorous a Governor as he was a wise and 
judicious administrator in the times of peace. The most 
spirited measures were adopted, both for offence and de- 
fence. Martial law was proclaimed, and embargo laid on 
all ships. Robert Daniel was appointed Deputy Gov- 
ernor and left in town, while the Governor, collecting a 
troop of horse and accompanied by a party of volunteers, 
set out himself at their head for Pocotaligo. Gathering 
as many as he could in Colleton, at the head of 240 men 
he marched directly against the enemy, after dispatching 
a courier to Colonel Mackay with orders to raise imme- 
diately what forces he could and to proceed, by water, to 
meet him at Yamassee Town. The Governor halted for 
the night near the Combahee River, within sixteen miles 
of the enemy's town, and was attacked early the next 
morning by about 500 of the Yamassees. Notwithstand- 
ing the surprise, he soon put his men in order and, after 
an engagement of three-quarters of an hour, routed the 
enemy with the loss of only one man killed and a few 
wounded ; while of the Indians, besides the wounded some 
of their chief leaders were slain. Without guides for 
crossing the river, and observing the great number of the 
enemy, the Governor returned to Charles Town. 

Colonel Mackay, in pursuit of his orders, on his part 
surprised the Indians and drove them from their town, 
in which they had stored up quantities of provisions and 
plunder. While in possession of this place, learning 
that the enemy, 200 in number, had posted themselves in 
another fort, he sent 140 men to attack it. At this time 
" a young stripling named Palmer," avIio had been out on 
a scout with sixteen men, coming to Mackay 's assistance, 
at once scaled the fort and attacked the Indians within 
their trenches, but was forced to retreat ; yet a second 



536 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

time he effected an entrance with his men and completely 
drove the enemy from the fort, who fled but to be shot 
down by Colonel Mackay's forces. 

While the activity of the Carolinians checked the in- 
cursion on this quarter, a body of 400 Indians from the 
nortliAvard came down towards Goose Creek. A party of 
them entered Mr. John Heme's^ plantation near the 
Santee, and after being hospitably entertained with pro- 
visions, treacherously murdered him and began their dep- 
redations. Upon news of this. Captain Thomas Barker, 
collecting ninety horsemen, advanced to meet them. Trust- 
ing to an Indian guide, he was led into an ambuscade, in 
a thicket of trees and bushes, where the enemy lay con- 
cealed on the ground. The Carolinians had advanced into 
the midst of the enemy before they were aware of any 
danger. The Indians, springing from their lair and pour- 
ing in a volley, instantly killed Captain Barker and several 
of his men and put the rest to flight. So great was now 
the panic that almost the whole parish of Goose Creek 
were fleeing the town. Upon one plantation, however, 
seventy white men, with forty negroes, had thrown up a 
breastwork, but while unwarily listening to feigned pro- 
posals of peace, they permitted the fort to be surprised 
and only a few escaped a horrid butchery. The incur- 
sion was now fortunately checked. The savages, march- 
ing triumphantly onward, were met by Captain Chicken 
and the Goose Creek militia, and, after a long and obsti- 
nate engagement, on June 13 were defeated and driven 
back and the province thus secured in this direction. 

All plantations and settlements beyond twenty miles 
from the town were deserted. More and more alarming 
rumors reached the Governor. No hopes were now enter- 
tained of assistance from the Catawbas, the Cherokees, or 

1 The name is also found spelt Hearne^ and now Hyrne. 



UNDEU THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 537 

the Congarees. All were connected with this formidable 
conspiracy, which extended from St. Augustine to Cape 
Fear. Fears were, indeed, entertained of the total destruc- 
tion of whites. The Indians could number from 8000 
to 10,000 warriors. There were on Carolina's muster-rolls 
but 1200 men fit to bear arms. Nevertheless Governor 
Craven, relying on the defences of the town, determined 
to send his forces into the wilderness to meet the enemy. 
He summoned the Assembly May 6, and thus addressed 
them : " Expedition is the life of action . . . bring the 
women and children into our town, and all provisions 
from all the exposed plantations ; try to secure some of 
the Indians to our interests ; garrisons and militar}^ stores 
must be provided. Virginia and New England must be 
solicited for arms and aid." ^ In response to this ad- 
dress, the Assembly promptly, on the 10th, passed an act 
to confirm and justify the action of the Governor in pro- 
claiming martial law and appointing a Deputy Governor, 
and all the measures taken by the Governor, Deputy 
Governor, and members of Council for the defence 
of the province.^ On the same day, another act was 
passed to empower the Governor and Council to carry on 
the war, by which the Governor and Council were em- 
powered to impress, for the public service, all ships, 
vessels, arms, ammunition, provisions, and military stores. 
Commissioners were appointed to seize goods and mer- 
chandise to the amount of £2500, from the proceeds of 
which to purchase arms and ammunition. They were also 
authorized to impress medicines and drugs for the sick and 
wounded. Martial law, as then proclaimed, wa^ allowed ; 
but to extend no further than to militar}^ affairs.^ 

Governor Craven, on May 23, addressed a communica- 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 2G6 ; MSS. Journals. 

2 Statutes, vol. II, 623. 3 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 624. 



538 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tion to Lord Townsliend, Secretary of State to the new 
monarch, informing him of the cahimity to the province, 
and appealing to him for assistance. " It is a great pity, 
my Lord," he wrote, "so fine and flourishing a country 
shoukl be lost for want of men and arms, a country so 
beneficial to the Crown by its trade and once so safe to 
other colonies by reason of the vast number of Indians 
it was in alliance with. I have no occasion, therefore, 
to press your Lordship to consider that if once we are 
driven from hence, the French from Movill (Mobile) or 
from Canada or from Old France will certainly get foot- 
ing here if not prevented, and then, with their own 
Indians and with those that are now our enemies, they 
will be able to march against all or any colony on the 
main and threaten the whole British settlements." ^ 

This communication was, on its receipt on the 7th of 
July, laid before the King, who, through General Stan- 
hope, Townshend's fellow-secretary, transmitted it to the 
Commissioners of Trade and Plantation, with instruc- 
tions to report what might be the most proper and speedy 
method of assisting the colonists in Carolina.^ 

The next day Carteret, the Palatine, James Bertie for 
the minor Duke of Beaufort, and Sir John Colleton also 
addressed the Lords of Trade, informing them of letters 
received two days before giving an account of the de- 
plorable condition of his Majesty's subjects in Carolina by 
the Lidian invasion, and of their barbarities in torturing to 
death most of the British traders.^ Tiie case, they said, 
was the worse because it did not proceed from any provo- 
cation, as they were informed ; that it was believed that 
all the Indian nations, amounting to 10,000 in number, had 
combined to ruin all tlie British settlements on the Con- 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. II, 177, 179, 
^ Ibid., 187, 189. ^ Ibid., 193. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 539 

tinent of America to which Carolina was the frontier. 
They, the Proprietors, had met on this melancholy occasion 
and, to their great grief, found they were unable of them- 
selves to afford suitable assistance ; and that unless his 
Majesty would graciously please to interpose by sending 
men, arms, and ammunition, they could foresee nothing but 
the utter destruction of his Majesty's faithful subjects in 
those parts. The Hon. Charles Craven, then Governor, 
had behaved himself as a man of his quality ought, with 
the utmost bravery, and to his conduct it was owing that 
the country had not already been taken by the enemy. 
They would, they said, most willingly give at their board 
sufficient security to repay the government such sums of 
money as should be expended upon this necessary occa- 
sion if some of their members, particularly his Grace the 
Duke of Beaufort and the Right Hon. the Lord Craven, 
could, by reason of their minority, be bound. Whatever 
assistance his Majesty could afford, they hoped might be 
speedily sent. They retained one ship on purpose to 
carry arms, and would procure others on a day's notice. 
They had consulted General Nicholson, who had com- 
manded forces against these Indians, and they gave his 
estimate as to what would be necessary for the defence 
of the province. 

Thus it was that the Proprietors sought to relieve 
themselves of responsibility in this great emergency, 
and to turn their colonists. Landgraves, Caciques, and 
commoners all over to the protection of the Crown. But 
protection and obedience are the reciprocal obligations of 
government. If by reason of minorities among their 
Lordships, they could afford no protection in time of 
need, what right had they, during such minorities, to be 
governing the province they could not protect ? Tliis 
question was arising on both sides of the Atlantic. It 



540 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was being asked in London as well as in Charles Town. 
The Board of Trade was only too ready to take it up, and 
to press the Proprietors for an answer. On the receipt of 
the letters from Governor Craven and from the Proprie- 
tors, the board signified their desire to give their Lord- 
ships an opportunity to discuss with them the subject. 
And now the agency which the Assembly had established 
in London came in most opportunely. Mr. Kettleby was 
on hand to represent the interests of the colonists. 

On the 13th of July Lord Carteret, the Palatine, Mr. 
Kettleby, the agent of the province, Mr. Robert Johnson, 
son of Sir Nathaniel, and Mr. Shelton, secretary of the 
Board of Proprietors, appeared before the Board of Trade, 
when Lord Carteret informed the board that the Lords 
Proprietors had petitioned his Majesty for assistance 
towards the preservation of the province which they 
were unable to support themselves, the minority of two 
of the Proprietors making it impossible to raise money 
by mortgaging their charter. He urged, however, that 
their charter would be a virtual security for what his 
Majesty should be pleased to advance them in arms and 
ammunition and other necessaries for the defence of the 
province, though it would not be so to any private per- 
son. Mr. Johnson observed that though Carolina was 
then under the Proprietors, it Avas a frontier to the colonies 
under his Majesty's immediate government, and therefore 
he hoped his Majesty would send the supply of arms. 
The board desired that Lord Carteret would put in writ- 
ing the particulars of what he desired. 

The next day, the 14th, the two secretaries. Lord Town- 
shend and General Stanhope, had some conference with 
the Board of Trade, upon which certain queries were pre- 
sented to the Proprietors and they were requested to 
attend the day after with their answers in writing. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 541 

Lord Carteret and Mr. Ashley, two of the Proprietors, 
appeared accordingly on the 15th, and in answering the 
questions submitted by the Board of Trade, Lord Carteret 
said that the effects they had lately received from Caro- 
lina were rice, which might be disposed of for about 
X4000 sterling, which they were willing should be applied 
towards paying for the arms proposed to be sent. That 
1500 or even 1000 muskets, which General Nicholson 
estimated were necessary, could not be immediately fur- 
nished but by his Majesty's office of Ordnance ; they 
offered the rice as security towards the payment for these 
arms. They were not sure of being supplied with arms 
and ammunition from New England and New York, to 
which places the Assembly had sent the value of ^2500. 
He urged again the security which his Majesty would 
have by reason of the charter. It was observed that it 
would take too long to send transport ships from Caro- 
lina to fetch what men his Majesty might think fit to 
order from any of the northern colonies, — to which 
Lord Carteret replied that the Proprietors did not desire 
any men, but if the King would send some, merchant 
ships might be found to transport them ; but the Pro- 
prietors, he was compelled to add, were not able at 
present to hire such ships themselves, and therefore they 
prayed credit from the government to enable them to do 
it. Lord Carteret said about 500 men would be sufficient ; 
but the Proprietors expected that the officers who should 
command these men should be subject to the orders of the 
Governor of Carolina. The board at once objected, and 
pointed out the difficulty that would arise from his 
Majesty's officers submitting to the orders of any person 
not in immediate commission from him. The board then 
went to the root of the matter and suggested a surrender 
of the charter. To this the Proprietors replied that they 



542 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

were willing to surrender for an equitable consideration, 
but not otherwise. That they thought any particular 
Proprietor surrendering his right would be to advance the 
interest of the rest. That their Lordships' ancestors had 
been at very great expense in settling and improving this 
colony, which, in customs on the product thereof, had 
been of considerable benefit to this kingdom, there being 
annually produced in Carolina 3000 tons of rice, one- 
third of which was spent in the country, and the customs 
on the other two-thirds imported here amounted to 
£10,000 per annum, or a greater profit to this nation if 
the said rice be reexported by the returns — fifty thou- 
sand deer-skins, the duties whereof are £1000, besides 
great quantities of pitch, tar, and other naval stores. 
That their quit-rents, amounting to about £2000 per 
annum that country's money (i.e. currency), are applied 
to the payment of the Governor's salary, which is £300 
per annum, and for maintaining the other public officers 
in that government. That a duty is raised in Carolina 
of a penny per skin exported, which is applied to the 
maintenance of the clergy there. That in 1707, when 
Carolina was attacked by the French, it cost the province 
£20,000, and that neither his Majesty nor any of his 
predecessors had been at any charge from the first grant 
to defend the said province against the French or other 
enemies.^ To which their Lordships might have added, 
but did not, that neither had they, the Proprietors. 

Landgrave Kettleby, the agent of Carolina, and the 
merchants in London trading thither, on the 18th, pre- 
sented a petition to the Lords Commissioners of Trade, 
imploring the assistance and protection of the Crown. 
Most of us, said tlie merchants, have large debts and 
effects there, some have large plantations, and the loss of 

1 Colonial Records of N'o. Ca., vol. II, 193-196. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 543 

these would be considerable. But when they reflected 
upon the ruin of so flourishing, so hopeful a province, 
that had for many years taken so much of English manu- 
factures, and brought such a large revenue to the Crown, 
and yet from its first settlement had not put the Crown 
to one penny expense ; when they reflected upon the loss 
of so many Englishmen's lives, persons who had always 
behaved themselves so dutifully to the Crown, and had 
never forfeited their rights as subjects to protection, and 
yet were then in imminent danger of being massacred 
by savages, and perhaps being roasted on slow fires, 
scalped, stuck with lightwood, and other inexpressible 
tortures ; when they reflected that this general revolt, 
concerted by several distant Indian nations, who had never 
before had policy enough to form themselves into alli- 
ances, and could not have proceeded as they had, unless 
directed and supplied by the Spaniards at Fort Augustine 
and the French at Moville ; that Carolina, being the fron- 
tier of all the other settlements, which, if that should mis- 
carry, would soon involve all the other colonies in the 
same ruin, and the whole English Empire, religion, and 
name be extirpated in America, — these dreadful consid- 
erations superseded their present losses and induced them 
to apply to their Lordshi]3S for immediate relief and as- 
sistance against this public calamity. 

They represented that a ship was then lying in the 
river, called the Industry^ of one hundred tons' burthen, 
John Woddin, commander, ready to sail to Carolina, and 
only stayed, at their request, for the immediate transporta- 
tion of such arms and ammunition as his Majesty would 
graciously please to furnish. That Avith some new assur- 
ances of speedy reinforcement of men they hoped to en- 
courage the colonists to hold out a little longer ; but if 
this ship should go thither in ballast, and bring them 



544 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

nothing more solid than words and promises, they appre- 
hended despair would suggest to them that their miseries, 
though known in England, were not duly regarded, and 
that, with no prospect of timely relief, they would abandon 
the province.^ 

Fortunately for the colonists. Governor Craven, how- 
ever urgent he had been in his own direct appeal to the 
Royal Government, and that tlirough Landgrave Kettleby, 
the agent of the province, had not depended upon the 
result of these appeals. With great energy and execu- 
tive ability, and with a courage that rose superior to 
the occasion, he was able to meet the emergency and 
to rescue his province without the aid over which the 
Proprietors and the Board of Trade were higgling while 
the Indian savages were pressing to the walls of the 
town. 

He dispatched Francis Holmes to New England to 
purchase arms with the £2500 appropriated by the 
Assembly for that purpose; and sent Arthur Middleton 
to Virginia for assistance. Tlie forces of the colony were 
organized by the appointment of James Moore as Lieu- 
tenant General, John Barnwell, Colonel, and Alexander 
Mackay, Lieutenant Colonel. These were to consist of 
600 white inhabitants to be commanded by captains of 
sixties, and 400 negroes likewise divided into companies 
of sixties, commanded by captains and lieutenants. North 
Carolina promptly reciprocated the assistance she had re- 
ceived from this colony two years before. Governor 
Eden and Council, on May 25, 1715, called for volunteers 
for South Carolina, to go at the expense of their province, 
and organized a force of fifty men to be sent under the 
command of Colonel Maurice Moore, a brother of the gen- 
eral of South Carolina, and who had gone with him on 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. II, 196-199. 



UNDER THE PROPIUETAKY GOVERNMENT 545 

his expedition against the Tuscaroras in 1711, but had re- 
mained in the northern colony. 

About the middle of July, his Majesty's ship, the Valour^ 
Captain St. Loe, arrived with about 160 small arms, ten 
barrels of powder, and twenty-five casks of shot, sent by 
Governor Spots wood of Virginia, and on Saturday, the 
16th, Captain Middleton arrived with 120 men obtained 
with the assistance of Governor Spots wood, but for whom 
he had been compelled to agree to the most stringent 
terms. Soon after the Success^ man-of-war, came bringing 
thirty more men from Virginia, and eighty whites and 
sixty Indians from North Carolina. 

North Carolina, recognizing her obligations, had stopped 
to ask no condition for the assistance she now sent to her 
sister southern colony, but Virginia did not act so gener- 
ously. Mr. Middleton upon his first arrival was received 
with great civility and large promises of assistance, but 
when the terms came to be arranged with Governor Spots- 
wood, he was forced to promise that for every man sent 
Governor Craven should return an able-bodied woman 
who should continue in Virginia all the time the men sent 
were absent ; the transportation of both parties to be at 
the expense of South Carolina. This arrangement was 
found impracticable, and Governor Craven offered in lieu 
to increase the hire of the men to X4 per month, which 
modification of the agreement was accepted by Governor 
Spotswood. South Carolina was already in debt to Vir- 
ginia, and the payment of the debt was also made a con- 
dition of the aid sent.^ 

In pursuance of his purpose of bringing the women and 
children under the protection of the fortifications of the 
town, and assuming the offensive against the Indians, 
Governor Craven had gone to the Santee, where he was 

1 Colonial liecords of No. Ca., vol. II, 253, 254. 

2n 



546 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

organizing the forces for an advance in that direction. 
While he Avas so engaged, 700 Apalachis, who had joined 
the Yamassees, again appeared in the lower part of the 
province and destroyed all the plantations in their way, 
among them Lady Blake's plantation on Wadmalaw River, 
Colonel Eve's on the Tugaloo, and burned Mr. Boone's 
settlement and a ship he was building. Governor Craven 
at once hastened to meet this new outbreak ; but upon his 
approach the Indians fled over Pon Pon bridge across the 
Edisto, which they burned, having killed four or five white 
men. Captain Stone, sent with six periaguas and 100 
men to Port Royal, cut off six canoes of the enemy and 
drove them into the woods. ^ Governor Craven, having 
cleared the province of the Indians, in December sent out 
an expedition under Colonel George Chicken and Colonel 
Maurice Moore, who, crossing the Savannah at Fort 
Moore, a few miles below the present site of the city of 
Augusta, pursued the Indians into the wilds of the Over- 
Hill Cherokees, following them as far as the Hiwassee 
River in western North Carolina. ^ 

When the Assembly reconvened in February, 1716, hos- 
tilities had almost entirely ceased, and the chief object of 
solicitude was the securing, if possible, a permanent peace 
with all the surrounding Indian tribes. The Yamassees 
had acted prematurely, and although 400 whites had been 
killed and an immense amount of property destroyed, the 
traders having sustained a loss of X 10,000 in debts, yet 
the invincibility of the Carolinians against the combined 
power of the savages had been so forcibly proved that 

1 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 163, 207 ; Letter from Carolina, 
1715, Year Book City of Charleston (Ficken), 1894, Appendix, 319. 

2 See journal of the expedition supposed to be that of Colonel Chicken, 
published in Year Book City of Charleston (Ficken), 18^5, Appendix, 
324-352. ^K^^ 



XJNDl^^R THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 547 

never again was a united plot contrived, or an attempt 
made to penetrate in hostile bands to the vicinity of the 
capital.^ 

The Yamassees, upon their defeat and expulsion from 
Carolina, went directly to the Spanish territories in 
Florida, where they were received, as we have said, with 
bells ringing and guns firing as if they had come victo- 
riously from the field. Two women prisoners whom they 
had carried to St. Augustine reported to the Carolinians 
the kind reception the Indians met with from the Spaniards. 
It was again, doubtless, the settlement at Port Royal and 
the laying out of the town of Beaufort there that had 
aroused the Spaniards to set on the Indians against the 
English. They had destroyed the attempted settlement 
of Lord Cardross there in 1686 ; and now, thirty years 
after, they put up the Indians to prevent the establish- 
ment of the town of Beaufort. Driven from their lands, 
the Yamassees conceived inveterate ill-will and rancor to 
all Carolinians, and watched every opportunity of in- 
dulging their vengeance on them. Furnished with arms 
and ammunition by the Spaniards, they broke out in 
small scalping parties and infested the frontier of the 
settlements, often inflicting the most atrocious cruelties 
and tortures. 2 

The Lords Proprietors had written to Governor Craven 
on the 29th of March, 1713, that as Sir Anthony Craven 
had died, and as he might wish to come to England, they 
gave him permission to do so, and intimated their inten- 
tion of appointing Robert Johnson, son of Sir Nathaniel, 
to succeed him.^ Craven had not availed himself of the 
permission at the time, and he Avould not abandon the 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 268. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 223. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 161. 



548 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

province as long as it was menaced with danger. But 
now that the Indians had been defeated and the security of 
the province assured, he felt himself at liberty to do so. 
His personal courage, upright character, and devotion to 
the best interests of tlie government had won for him the 
esteem and warm attachment of the Carolinians. Their 
expressions to each other on parting were full of the evi- 
dences of their mutual friendship and respect. He left 
Colonel Robert Daniel Deputy Governor. ^ 

A melancholy accident happened upon his departure. 
He embarked for England on the 25th of April, 1716. 
While the man-of-war in which he was to sail rode 
at anchor near the bar, the Rev. Gideon Johnson, the 
commissary of the Bishop of London, with thirty other 
gentlemen, accompanied him in a sloop to take leave 
of him. On their return a storm arose, the sloop was 
overset, and Mr. Johnson, lame of the gout and being 
in the hold, was droAvned. The other gentlemen were 
saved. Afterwards the sloop drove, and it was remarkable 
that Mr. Johnson's body was taken out while it was beat- 
ing against the same bank of sand upon which he had 
almost perished at his first arrival. ^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 268. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 231 ; Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 98. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

1716 

When the Tuscaroras had risen, in 1711, on the Neuse, 
South Carolina had not paused for a day to make a bar- 
gain or contract with her northern sister province, but had 
at once fitted out and dispatched the expedition under 
Barnwell, and had with like liberality sent another under 
Moore, in 1713, upon the renewal of that war. In 1715 
North Carolina had acted in return with as much gener- 
osity, and sent assistance to this province under Maurice 
Moore. Virginia, when appealed to by Governor Craven, 
in 1715, had not seen fit to act in this spirit. She had 
demanded terms and security from Middleton, the agent, 
and he had had to bargain with Governor Spotswood for 
the few men he obtained from that province. Nor did 
Spotswood afterwards neglect the contract he had required, 
but rigidly insisted upon a compliance with its terms, and 
complained to the Board of Trade in England that South 
Carolina had not fulfilled her engagements with him ; so 
that when the Proprietors and the Carolina agents applied 
to that board for assistance, they were met witli the 
inquiry as to their liability to that province. To this 
Carteret had replied that Virginia had looked to her own 
interests and had acted but prudently in sending assist- 
ance to Carolina, it being better to fight an enemy at a 
distance than witliin her own territory. But (jovernor 
Spotswood continued to press for his hire, and it was 

549 



550 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

deemed best to send back his men, for whom South Caro- 
lina found it inconvenient to pay. 

The General Assembly met again soon after the de- 
parture of Governor Craven, and its first business was to 
address a letter on the 15th of March, 1715-16, to its 
special agents in England, Messrs. Boone and Berresford, 
urging them to press the appeal to his Majesty to take 
the immediate government of the province into his own 
hands ; for, according to all human probability, they wrote, 
unless his Majesty would do so, and send men to defend 
them and money to defray their charges, this once flourish- 
ing colony Avould be reduced to nothing and become a 
prey to their barbarous enemies. 

According to a moderate computation, they said, the 
charges that the province had been at for the support of 
the war amounted to X 150,000 ; what further charges they 
would incur, God alone knew ; they need not use any argu- 
ments to make their agents know that this would be a 
greater burden than the province could possibly bear. 
The forces from Virginia and North Carolina were on their 
return home, being unwilling to stay longer, and the As- 
sembly more than willing to release, as they could not 
afford to maintain them. They were trying to find some 
means of giving the government of Virginia all the satis- 
faction they could in reason desire. In their letter the 
Assembly said : " Wee should not have mentioned anything 
on this head at this time had not the Govern'" of Virginia 
sent us word that he would endeavor to make us look as 
odious as he could both at home in England, and in all the 
Kings Govm*" in America upon the account of our non per- 
formance of every particular branch of the Treaty of as- 
sistance agreed upon between that Gover"'' and our agent 
sent thither for that purpose. At the same time we must 
confess that if our late Assembly had fully complied with 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 551 

that agreement it would not have cost this province near 
so much money as the measure we shall now be obliged 
to take."i 

Upon the receipt of this letter, Mr. Berresford pre- 
sented to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Planta- 
tion a memorial upon the condition of South Carolina,^ 
stating that the province having for a year past been 
engaged in war with tlie Indians, numbers of its inhabi- 
tants had been destroyed by fire and sword. The small 
number of white men fit to bear arms that were left con- 
tinued to desert the province, and had not the govern- 
ment of Virginia and North Carolina sent to their 
assistance about 200 men (for part of whom they had 
been obliged to consent to terms almost impossible to 
be complied with), many more, if not the greatest part 
of the present inhabitants would in all probability have 
deserted. The whole province, thus distressed and de- 
spairing of further assistance from the American colonies 
or from the Lords Proprietors, were under the necessity 
of making application to the King and Parliament to 
enable them to subdue their enemies. 

The memorial went on to say that tlieir agents and 
several merchants of London trading to Carolina had 
accordingly, on the 9th of August before, presented their 
case by petition to the House of Commons, and after ex- 
amination by committee, that body had been pleased to 
address his Majesty to send to the assistance of Carolina 
such supplies as in. his wisdom should be thought needful ; 
that his Majesty had been pleased to send a sufficient 
quantity of arms, "but the unnatural rebellion," that of 
the Pretender then existing in Scotland, had prevented 
his sending men. 

A second petition from the agents, merchants, and 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. II, 224-226. 2 jua.^ 229-233. 



552 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

others to the King, they said, had been presented praying 
that some of the rebels in Scotland who had petitioned to 
be transported might be sent to serve in Carolina. That 
by other letters and advices received from the most 
credible inhabitants, it appeared that, notwithstanding 
they had made peace with one nation of their Indian 
enemies, they were still obliged to employ all the force of 
white men they could raise, together with many of their 
black slaves, against those Indians who had begun the 
war, and had since committed tlie greatest barbarities. 

'' All of which Representations and Applications," Mr. 
Berresford continued, "being made to this Government 
and also by proper persons here made known to the Hon- 
orable the Lord Proprietors, and no sufficient assistance 
sent them. About the beginning of this instant June 
arrived here from that Province another address to the 
King and a letter from the Assembly there very plainly 
setting forth their present State, which having been shown 
to the Honorable the Lord Cartwright (Carteret) and 
others the Lords Proprietors of that Province they had 
signified their dislike thereto, and as we have too much 
reason to fear will not only refuse to consent to what may 
be necessary on their parts but also endeavour to invali- 
date the said Representation which obliges us the more 
earnestly to make all the application we are able that the 
condition of these distressed subjects may in the most 
effectual manner be laid before and come under the con- 
sideration of his Majesty and the Government with the 
greatest Expedition." 

The memorial pressed again the importance of the 
colony as an outpost to the other English provinces in 
America. They represented that "by many former cir- 
cumstances as well as by the late Letter from the Assembly 
of Carolina there is too much reason to be assur'd that the 



UNDER THE PKOPiilETARY GOVERNMENT 553 

French (who live and trade with the Indians from Que- 
beck and along the Lakes of Canida and southward to 
and down the great river of Messisippi to Fort Morilla 
scituated on a River near the mouth of the said great 
River with the Bay of Mexico) have stirred up and en- 
couraged severall Nations of Indians to this war." The 
French, they represented, had settled within the bounds 
of the charter of Carolina on the back of the improved 
part of the province, and had possessed themselves from 
the northernmost part of the sea to the southernmost on 
the back of all the most valuable British plantations and 
colonies on the main of America. " 'Tis too obvious," 
they said, '' what they (especially South Carolina) must 
expect whenever a Rupture with France may happen if 
not before. It's also as obvious how formidable the 
French will grow there during peace considering how 
industrious they are in frequently supplying their Settle- 
ments with People," etc. 

" Carolina being thus circumstanced and capable of af- 
fording greater quantity of valuable produce than any 
other part of British America as the best of Rice in 
abundance, all manner of Timber for building, shipping in 
great plenty, Pitch, Tar, Turpentine, Rossin, Indigo and 
Silk which has been manufactured in London and proves 
to be of extraordinary Substance and Lustre, omitting to 
mention the great quantity of provisions and other neces- 
sarys it affords the Plantation. 'Tis humbly hoped the 
King and Parliament will be of opinion that it merits a 
particular notice and Protection. 

" The colony being capable of producing sufficient quan- 
tities of many of the aforesaid commodities not only to 
supply great Britain but several other parts of Europe, 
the first costs of which being paid for, in british manufac- 
torys and the whole freight redounding to his Majestys 



554 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Subjects are circumstances worthy of the notice of the 
Legishature." ^ 

While Boone and Berresford were thus appealing to his 
Majesty's government to be taken under the Royal care 
and protection, the Assembly in Carolina were devoting 
themselves to legislation for the province, not indeed as 
if they had any idea of abandoning it. One of its 
first measures was to order " That Col. Maurice Moore be 
desired (by the messenger) to attend this House, and 
Avhen come into the same Mr. Speaker do give him the 
thanks of this House for his service to this Province in 
his coming so cheerfully with the forces brought from 
North Carolina to our assistance, and for what further 
services he and they have done since their arrival here."^ 

In 1707, under the administration of Sir Nathaniel 
Johnson, a large tract of land before alluded to, then in- 

1 To this memorial Mr. Berresford added the following tabular state- 
ment of the value of the province before the Indian wars, and its losses 
occasioned thereby : — 

A Demonstration of the Present State « of South Carolina. 

The value of The Province the year before the Indian war. viz{ Lands, Negroes 

Stock Merchan<ii5 and all other Protitt and Improvements by an AsseniW the 

sum total amounting to £709.763 

The value of the Province is diminished by destruction desertion t&ct: at least a 

third which is £236.587 

The Bills of Credit made current before the war and now extant are . . . £44.000 

The Debts and Bills since the War £ 140.000 

The value of Ten Thousand Negroes at Twenty Pounds each which being the^ 

only thing the Inhabitants can carry with them when they desert the Prov- I 

£ 200 000 
ince or improve their Lands, and subsist themselves with, while there they j 

will never part with, and therefore the sum of them to be deducted, which is .) 

The remaining sum to be cxosted before their Debts will be equal to the values 

of their Laiuls, and other Stock after which (in point of Interest) it seems to I 

be equal for the Inhabitants to leave the Province or stay & pay the Debt if I 

their Troubles were at an end, but If the War continue & the Inhabitants V 89.176 

remain on the Land there is too much reason to fear thej^ will be reduced to 

the miserable condition of their Neighbors in the Bahama Islands which we 

hope his most Gracious Majesty the King under God will timely prevent . y £ 709.763 

2 Commons Journal. 

a Condition. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT B55 

habited by the Yamassees, had been set aside and appro- 
priated by an act for their exclusive use. Surveys and 
settlements upon it were forbidden, and white settlers 
already within its limits were removed. The purpose of 
this measure was to secure the maintenance of these then 
friendly Indians between the colony and the hostile tribes 
under Spanish influence in Florida.^ But after the Indian 
War and the expulsion of the Yamassees, the Proprietors 
had written to the Governor and Council on the 3d of 
March, 1716, that it was the intention of the board that 
these lands from which the Yamassees had been expelled 
should be parcelled out in divisions not exceeding 100 
acres to be allotted to those Avho were or might thereafter 
come to Carolina. 2 The lirst act of the Assembly of 
June 13, 1716, under Deputy Governor Daniel was, there- 
fore, one to repeal the act of 1707, and to open these 
lands to settlers from abroad. The limits of this territory 
were the Combahee River on the northeast, the marshes 
and islands on Coosaw and Port Royal rivers on the 
southeast, the Savannah River on the southwest, and a 
line drawn from the head of the Combahee River to Fort 
Moore on the Savannah. These lands were now set apart 
for settlement by such persons (being Protestants) as 
might come into the province from Great Britain, Ireland, 
or any of his Majesty's plantations in America. To every 
such person 300 acres of river land and 400 acres of 
back land were offered. The grants were to be confined 
to " new comers '' (actual settlers), who were not to be 
allowed to convey away their tracts before seven years 
had expired. The grants were not, however, to be with- 
out consideration. A quit-rent of 12 pence per 100 acres 
was reserved and X3 purchase money to be paid for each 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 317. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 164. 



556 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

100 acres within four years and six months. This favor 
being allowed the persons that should settle the said tract 
of land, said the act, in consideration of their poverty. 
" Therefore," it continued, " it is the humble request and 
desire of the General Assembly to the Lord Palatine, and 
the rest of the Lords Proprietors of this Province that 
their Lordships for the consideration aforesaid will ac- 
quiesce in and approve this part of this act, and accept 
of their purchase money to be paid as before directed by 
this act," etc.^ 

The next measure of the General Assembly Avas one to 
encourage the importation of white servants. The act 
recited that sad experience had taught that the small 
number of white inhabitants was not sufficient to defend 
the province even against their Lidian enemies, and that 
the numbers of slaves which were daily increasing might 
likewise endanger its safety if speedy care was not taken 
to encourage the importation of white servants. Where- 
fore a bounty of £25 current money of the province was 
offered to be paid by the Receiver for every white male 
servant above sixteen years of age and under thirty; and 
<£22 for every boy of twelve and under sixteen; an addi- 
tional bounty of £5 was offered for all such servants 
Avho should be imported within two years. Of the white 
servants so imported, planters were required to take from 
the Receiver one servant for every ten slaves owned. 
But whereas said the act, " there hath been imported into 
this province several native Irish servants that Jire Papists, 
and persons taken from Newgate and other prisons, con- 
victed of capital crimes to the great prejudice and detri- 
ment of this province," in order to prevent the imposing 
upon the province persons of lewd and profligate lives, it 
provided " that all merchants or masters of vessels or 

1 StaUites of So. Ca., vol. II, G41-646. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 557 

others shall upon their oaths declare that to the best of 
their knowledge none of the servants by them imported 
be either what is commonly called native Irish or persons 
of known scandalous characters or Roman Catholics " ; 
merchants shipping servants were " obliged to send a 
certificate under the liand of the proper magistrate that 
such persons or servants are Protestants, and be not 
reputed to be or have not been legally convicted of any 
notorious crime." ^ Such were the religious animosities of 
the time and the blindness of prejudice that the colonists 
appear to have been more afraid of Irish papists than of 
the Yamassee Indians, and regarded them no better than 
"persons of lewd and profligate lives." It is scarcely to 
be wondered, however, that Roman Catholics should be 
held in such disrepute, when it is recollected that but a 
few years since the dissenters under Boone were classifying 
Huguenots, Jews, strangers, aliens, servants, and negroes 
as alike unworthy of participation in the government with 
English freemen. 

The next measure was one "/or laying an impositioyi on 
Liquors^ goods and Me^^chandises Imported or Exported out 
of this Province for the raising of a Fund of Money toivards 
defraying the public charges and expenses of the Grovern- 
ment.^^^ This act, which laid heavy duties on a long list 
of enumerated articles of merchandise, and five per cent 
on all goods not mentioned, made another attempt to check 
the importation pf negroes by imposing heavy duties. 
Three pounds current money per head was imposed on 
every negro slave over ten years old imported into the 
province from Africa ; and X30 per head for all such im- 
ported from any of the other colonies.^ 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 646. 

2 Ibid., 649. 

3 From inventories and appraisements on file in the Ordinary's, now 



558 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Then followed an act authorizing another emission of 
bills of credit to the amount of X 30,000 for the payment 
of the army and defraying the expenses of the war, which 
resulted in a further depreciation of the currency. ^ Also 
" An act for the better Regulating the Indian Traded ^ These 
and other measures of less importance were passed on the 
SOtli of June, 1716. At the same session Governor Daniel 
had informed the House that he had bought thirty of the 
Highland Scots rebels at <£30 per head, for whom the 
agent in London had petitioned, and requested power to 
purchase more. The Assembly sanctioned this purchase ; 
but wished no more " till we see how these will behave 
themselves."^ On the 4th of August still another issue 
of £15,000 in bills was authorized to be stamped to pay 
for these Scots, who were to be employed as soldiers in 
defending the province.* 

Having taken these measures for checking the impor- 
tation of negroes and encouraging that of white men for 
the protection of the province, the Assembly turned its 
attention to remedy the evils and inconveniences which 
still existed in regard to the election of members of the 
Commons House of Assembly. Previously to the act of 
1692,^ as we have seen, elections had been conducted en- 
tirely under the instruction of the Lords Proprietors to 
their Governors. The provisions of that act are not 
known. The act of 1704^ prescribed the qualifications of 
a voter to be the age of twenty-one years, the possession of 

Probate, office in Charleston, which were made about this time, grown 
negro slaves appear to have been valued at from £150 to £200 currency ; 
i.e. about £40 to £50 sterling. Boone and Berresford in the table just 
given, it will be seen, value negroes, young and old, male and female, at 
£20 sterling, round. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 662. 2 /^^yZ., 677. 

3 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 276, note ; Commons Journals. 

* Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 682. ^ jj^i^l., 73. e /^jt^.^ 249. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 559 

50 acres of land or ^10 in personal property, and a residence 
of three months prior to the date of the writs of election ; 
required the elections to be held in public for two days, 
and to be by ballot ; but it did not prescribe the voting 
precincts, nor apportion the representatives to the coun- 
ties. These matters were left as they had been under 
the regulations of the Proprietors, and though the repre- 
sentation had been divided in 1682 equally between Berkeley 
and Colleton, and directions had been given that the elec- 
tions should be held at Charles Town and London, in Colle- 
ton, and again apportioned in 1691 between Berkeley, 
Colleton, and Craven counties, it had become customary, 
perhaps through the dangers of Colleton to incursions of 
the Indians, to hold all the elections in Charles Town. 
This was not only inconvenient, but it led to the rioting 
which had often occurred, especially in 1701, and exposed 
the inhabitants of the country precincts to the influences 
of the political leaders in the town. It was in every 
respect a most objectionable and dangerous arrangement, 
justified only at first by the necessities of the times. 
This matter the Assembly now took up, and again looked 
to Barbadoes for a model upon which to base a representa- 
tive and elective system. 

In England the two systems, the parish and the town- 
ship, have existed from the most ancient times side by 
side ; usually, but not always, coincident in area, yet 
separate in character and machinery. The township, 
which preceded the parish, was the unit of civil, and 
the parish the unit of ecclesiastical, administration.^ 
The nonconformists of New England, disaffected to the 
church, adopted the township system to the exclusion 
of the parochial. The churchmen, who settled Barba- 

1 Blackstone's Com., vol. I, 112-116; Stubbs's Cons. Hist., vol. I, 
227 ; Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. XVIII, 295. 



560 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

does about the same time, on the other hand, established 
parishes, and from time to time adding civil to the 
ecclesiastical duties of parochial offices, contented them- 
selves with that organization as the basis alike of civil 
as of ecclesiastical affairs. The parish thus became the 
unit alike of Church and State, and the election precinct 
of members of the Commons House of Assembly. The 
Church act of 1706, as we have seen, adopted in Carolina 
the names of the parishes in Barbadoes, and in 1712, 
the care of the poor, which under Archdale's act of 
1695 had been committed to overseers, was put under 
the charge of the vestries and churchwardens — a legiti- 
mate charge in their ecclesiastical capacity. The Assem- 
bly of this year went further and adopted the parish 
electoral system of Barbadoes as the model of the gov- 
ernment of this colony. The act which accomplished this 
was entitled " An act to keep mviolate and preserve the 
freedom of Elections and appoint ivho shall he dee^ned and 
adjudged capable of clioosiyig or being chosen Members of 
the Commons House of Assembly y ^ The reasons assigned 
in the preamble for its enactment were that the greatest 
part of the inhabitants lived at considerable distance from 
the stated places of election, whereby they were at great 
expense of time and money, besides other hazards, in choos- 
ing members of the Commons House of Assembly ; and 
as the counties of the province were now divided into 
distinct parishes, elections might be managed in them 
so as, in a great measure, to avoid these evils. Its prin- 
cipal features were as follows : — 

Elections were to be held in each parish to continue 
for but two days, beginning at sunrise each day and end- 
ing at sunset. These elections were to be managed by 
the churchwardens, who were to make publication of 

1 Statiites of So. Ca., vol. II, 683. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 561 

the writs, and, at the closmg of the polls, were to put all 
the votes, which were to be " delivered in and rolled up 
by the electors, into some box, glass or paper, sealed with 
the seals of any two or more of the electors present," and, 
upon the opening of the polls the second da}^ were to be 
unsealed, in order to proceed to the election. 

To prevent persons voting twice at the same election, 
electors were to be enrolled ; their names were to be 
fairly entered in a book or roll provided by the church- 
wardens ; and if in voting two or more papers were 
found rolled up together, or more persons' names found 
written on any paper than ought to be voted for, such 
papers were not to be counted. It was especially pro- 
vided that the elector should not be obliged to subscribe 
his name to the voting paper or ballot, which seems to 
intimate that some such custom had previously existed ; 
but of this we have no other information. The church- 
wardens, managers of elections, were, within seven days, 
to give public notice at the church door, or some other 
public place in the parish, of the result of the election ; 
and every one chosen was required under a penalty of 
XlOO currency to serve. 

The members of the House of Commons were thus ap- 
portioned to the parishes : to St. Pliilip's, Charles Town, 
four; Christ Church two; St. John's three; St. An- 
drew's four ; St. James, Goose Creek, three ; and as, 
said the act, the limits of the parishes of St. Thomas and 
St. Dennis were not yet clearly ascertained, " the said 
parish of St. Dennis lying in the midst of the bounds, and 
designed only for the use of the French settlements, which 
at present are mixed with the English," to the parishes 
of St. Thomas and St. Dennis were allotted three ; to 
St. Paul's four ; St. Bartholomew's three ; to St. Helena 
three ; to St. James, on Santee, in Craven County, one. 

2o 



562 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

A special provision was made in favor of the inhabi- 
tants of St. Bartholomew's and St. Helena, who had been 
driven from their settlements ; they were allowed to 
choose persons who had formerly lived in those parishes, 
and to vote at such places as the Governor and Council 
should appoint. The bounds of tlie parishes were to be 
surveyed within two months after the ratification of the 
act. 

Writs of election were to be issued by the Governor 
and Council, and to be tested forty days before the meet- 
ing of a new House, of which elections public notice was 
to be given two Sundays before at the door of each parish 
church or at some other public place in the parish. In 
case churchwardens should be wanting, the Governor 
and Council might appoint other persons to manage an 
election. The managers of election, churchwardens, or 
other persons appointed were required to be sworn by a 
Justice of the Peace faithfully to execute the writ of 
election. This clause was to be the subject of one of the 
first differences between the people and the Royal Gov- 
ernment forty-six years after. 

The qualifications of voters prescribed in the act of 1704 
were modified. It was now enacted that every white 
man, and no other, professing the Christian religion, of 
the age of twenty-one years, wlio had been in the province 
for the space of six months before the date of the writ of 
election, instead of three, as was sufficient under the act 
of 1704, and who was worth .£30 current money of the 
province, should be entitled to vote for members of the 
Commons House of Assembly for the parish wherein he 
was actually resident. The freehold qualification of 1704 
was abolished, but the money qualification increased from 
XIO to £S0. For members of the House the qualifica- 
tions were that the person should be worth £500 current 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 563 

money in goods and chattels, or possessed of 500 acres of 
land in the parish wherein he was chosen. 

Penalties were presented against those who should vio- 
late the freedom of election by menaces, threats, or bribery. 
A quorum of the House was fixed at sixteen members, 
nine of whom must concur in the passage of any law ; but 
seven might meet, " make a house " as it was termed, elect 
a chairman (in the absence of the Speaker), and adjourn or 
summon by their Messenger the absent members. 

This law, which now assimilated the government of 
Carolina to that of Barbadoes and tlie other British West 
Indies which had followed the model of that colony, was 
acceptable to all but to a few leaders, chief of whom were 
Trott and Rhett. Churchmen were satisfied with it, as 
it incorporated the church into the very warp and woof 
of the government itself, making use of its machinery 
for the administration of civil affairs as well as ecclesiasti- 
cal, and thus more firmly establishing its hold upon the 
people. On the other hand, it avoided the violence and 
tumults often witnessed at elections in Charles Town, 
saved great expense and inconvenience, and allowed 
parties in the country to manage tlieir elections with- 
out interference or influence of the townspeople. It 
increased the representation in the Commons House to 
thirty, and most equitably apportioned the representation 
to the different parts of the province. No more repre- 
sentatives were allowed to St. Pliilip's, the town parish, 
than to St. Paul's, in Colleton. But this was fully com- 
pensated by the representation allow^ed the adjoining 
parishes, St. James, Goose Creek, St. Andrew's, and 
Christ Church, whose interests and afBliations were all 
the same as those of the inhabitants of the town. This 
act thus established the peculiar parish system of South 
Carolina, which was to last for a century and a half. 



bQi: HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The Proprietors had yielded to the wishes of the 
people, and on the 24th of February, 1716, had revoked 
the veto power of Trott and his power to appoint Provost 
Marshals.^ They had also agreed to tlie appropriation of 
the Yamassee lands to new settlers, ^ and in April had 
contributed j£500 towards the building of the new St. 
Philip's Church, and directed that the Rev. Mr. John- 
son, for whom they entertained a high opinion, was to 
receive £100 per annum during his residence in the 
parish of Charles Town, and also arrears for assize ser- 
mons from the year 1708 to 1713.^ But Mr. Johnson, 
as we have seen, had not lived to enjoy these additions 
to his income. Though the Proprietors had withdrawn 
the extraordinary powers they had conferred upon Trott, 
they had lost no confidence in him, and were ready to 
trust him with other positions and duties in addition to 
those of his great office of Chief Justice. Lord Carteret, 
the Palatine, issued a warrant authorizing him to sit as 
Judge of the Vice-admiralty Court. ^ 

Another great trouble to the Carolinians had been grow- 
ing during Governor Craven's administration. While the 
Indians had arisen upon the frontier in the country, and 
the Governor was engaged in repelling their invasion from 
that direction, the pirates again appeared upon the coast. 
During Queen Anne's War, both Spaniards and French 
had twice overrun and plundered the Bahama Islands, 
and the Island of Providence was practically deserted by the 
English inhabitants. The population of Providence had 
always been of the most unruly and turbulent character, 
living in a great measure upon the wrecks on the island, 
which they were accused, indeed, of occasioning as well 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 187. 
2/6id,164. '^ Ibid., 163. 

4 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 231. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 565 

as plundering. 1 Trott himself had been Governor of the 
island, and knew well its character. Indeed, he had been 
charged by Randolph with conniving at these practices. 
During the war with France and Spain, Providence be- 
came the chief rendezvous of a body of desperate men, 
who were accustomed to push out into the ocean, or 
cruise in the Gulf of Mexico and prey on commerce. 
For five years they held their robber reign, and plun- 
dered and took vessels of every nation without distinc- 
tion. They had their hiding-places along the coast of 
both Carolinas. The mouth of the Cape P^ear was a 
place of refuge and resort, second only in importance to 
Providence.^ It was estimated that they numbered 1500 
men on the coast, 800 of whom had their headquarters 
at Providence. They swept the coast from Newfound- 
land to South America, plundering their prizes at sea, 
or carrying them into Cape Fear or Providence as best 
suited their convenience.^ 

Upon the address of the House of Lords the King had 
dispatched Captain Woodes Rogers with a naval force to 
Providence, to break up the nest of pirates there. This, 
as we shall see, Rogers promptly succeeded in doing. 
But their suppression in the Island of Providence did 
but transfer large numbers of them to Carolina. 

The commerce of Carolina had in the last ten years 
greatly increased. It had, indeed, more than doubled. 
In 1706 the number of vessels entering the port of 
Charles Town had been 68. In 1716 it had been 162.^ 
The commerce of the port had been for some years free 
from piratical interference, until 1715, when many captures 

1 British Empire in Am.^ vol. II, 422. 
•^ Hawks's Hist, of No. Ca., vol. II, 272. 

3 The Carolina Pirates (S. C. Hughson) ; Johns Hopkins Univ. 
iStudies, 12 series, V, VI, VII, 59. * See Appendix VIII. 



566 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of vessels in the Carolina trade had been made, and it 
became evident that unless some immediate action was 
taken the commerce of the colony would be destroyed. 
While the agents of Carolina in London were pressing, 
now the Proprietors, and then the Royal Government, for 
assistance in resisting Indians, the pirates had begun 
again their depredations on her commerce ; and from 
neither Proprietors nor government could assistance of 
any consequence be secured. 

Whether or not there was any truth in Randolph's 
charges as to Trott's complicity with the pirates while 
Governor of Providence, he acted now with great vigor 
against them. A number having been taken, a court was 
at once organized for their trial. Fortunately, Trott liad 
not only the Proprietors' commission as Judge of Admiralty, 
but he had also a commission from the King. No ques- 
tion could possibly arise, therefore, as to his jurisdiction. 
Among the English statutes under his compilation re- 
enacted here in 1712 was that of 27 Henry VIII, c. 4 : 
" Fo7* Pirates and Rohhers on the Sea.''* In adopting the 
English statutes, it had been provided by this act of 1712 
that the Governor and Council of the province should 
have all the power and authority relating to the execution 
of the enumerated statutes as by the same were given and 
possessed in England by the Lord Chancellor or the Lord 
Keeper of the Great Seal of England ; and under the 
statute of Henry VIII pirates were to be tried by com- 
mission under the King's Great Seal directed to the Lord 
Admiral or to the Lieutenant or Deputy and to three or 
four such other substantial persons as should be named 
by the Lord Chancellor.^ In pursuance of these provisions. 
Governor Daniel and his Council, — George Logan, Francis 
Yonge, and Samuel Eveleigh, — on the 27th of November, 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 413, 4G5. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 567 

1716, issued a commission for the trial of the captured 
pirates.^ A grand jury was organized and an indictment 
was given out against the prisoners, nine in number, six 
of whom were from England, one from Boston, one from 
New York, and one from Williamsburg, Virginia. The 
grand jury returned a true bill, but upon the trial the petit 
jury failed to convict. Another party were, however, soon 
after captured, and brought to trial before the court on 
the 3d of July, 1717, and, as we shall see, were convicted 
and hung.^ 

1 By this commission the following assistant judges were appointed : 
Captain Thomas Howard, commander of his Majesty's ship the Shoram ; 
the Hon. Charles Hart, one of the members of the Council in South Caro- 
lina ; the Hon, Thomas Broughton, Speaker of the House of Assembly in 
South Carolina ; Arthur Middleton, Esq., and Ralph Izard, Esq. ; Captain 
Philip Dawes ; Captain William Cuthbert, commander of the Fortune 
frigate ; Captain Allen Archer, commander of the brigantine Experi- 
ment ; and Samuel Deane and Edward Brailsford, merchants. 

2 Admiralty Book, U. S. Dist. Ct. of So. Ca. , A. and B. 



CHAPTER XXV 

1717 

Governor Craven, upon his arrival in England, 
attended upon the Lords Proprietors, who desired him to 
continue his office and to return to Carolina, but he stated 
that his affairs in England were of such a nature as to 
prevent his doing so, and requested to be excused, and 
that their Lordships would nominate another Governor to 
succeed him. The Proprietors thereupon agreed to nomi- 
nate Robert Johnson, son of Sir Nathaniel, as Governor, 
and the Secretary was instructed to prepare letters for 
the Royal approbation of the nomination. They ordered 
that a part of Mr. Johnson's instructions should be to 
make inquiry into the complaints of Governor Spots- 
wood ; that all arrears then due the Lords Proprietors 
and growing rents to the 1st of May, 1718, be given to 
the use of the public as the Governor and Council should 
think proper to appropriate. They also offered Governor 
Craven a present of £1000 for his services.^ 

It was not until April 30, 1717, that his Majesty's 
approval had been obtained and all other preliminaries 
arranged so as to allow the Proprietors to issue Mr. 
Johnson's commission. By his instructions Governor 
Johnson was, immediately on his arrival, to summon 
Alexander Skene, Nicholas Trott, Thomas Broughton, 
Charles Hart, Francis Yonge, Samuel Wragg, and 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. 1, 188. 
568 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 569 

(James) Kinloch to be the Council ; liberty of debate was 
to be allowed and votes upon all matters that should be 
debated. No member of the Council was to be suspended 
Avithout good and sufficient reasons, which were to be at 
once forwarded to England. The Receiver General was 
to be aided in getting in fines and forfeitures. Their 
Lordships had received complaints of the exorbitant rates 
of bullion in Carolina, which they alleged proceeded only 
from an act to which they had always evinced great 
repugnance, called the "bank act." They recommended 
the reduction, as much as possible, of paper credit. 
Inventory was to be taken of all arms, ammunition, and 
stores, and storehouses were to be established through- 
out the province. Governor Johnson was to receive, 
as salary, X400 per annum, payable quarterly ; a full 
moiety of which in the event of his death or absence 
was to be paid to whomsoever might be appointed to 
the temporary administration of the government. Upon 
other points the instructions were the same as to previous 
Governors.^ 

A most curious and anomalous condition of affairs now 
existed as to the relations between the colony, the Pro- 
prietors, and the Royal Government. The Governor and 
Council were still in constant formal communication with 
their Lordships the Proprietors. But behind this regular 
channel of communication their Lordships were in private 
correspondence with Cliief Justice Trott. On the other 
hand, Avhile the Governor, Council, and Assembly had 
their regular agent. Landgrave Kettleby, in London to 
look after the bounties due and the affairs of the colony 
generally, under the instructions of a committee of corre- 
spondence of the Assembly itself, that body had also their 
special agents, Messrs. P>oone and Berresford, there directly 

1 Coll. Hist. Sue. of So. Ca., vol. I, 165. 



570 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

appealing to the Roj^al Government, in which appeals, still 
more to complicate matters. Deputy Governor Daniel him- 
self was joinnig,^ although he had objected to the appropri- 
ation of X2000 by the Assembly for Boone and Berresford, 
upon the ground that it was using the public funds to 
destroy the charter of the Proprietors. ^ 

Tlius, Avhile the Proprietors were preparing their in- 
structions for Governor Robert Johnson, Messrs. Boone 
and Berresford were laying before his Majesty "The 
humble address of the Representatives and inhabitants of 
South Carolina," in which the memorialists say :^ — 

" In our last humble address to your Majesty we took the liberty 
to inform your Majesty of the deplorable circumstances we then 
labored under, without any probability of seeing an end to our 
calamities. Our troubles instead of coming to a period, daily in- 
crease upon us, and we now see ourselves reduced by these, our mis- 
fortunes to such a dismal extremity, that nothing but your Majesty's 
most Royal and gracious protection (under God) can preserve us 
from ruin. Our Indians continue committing so many hostilities 
and infesting our settlements and plantations to such a degree, that 
not only those estates which were deserted at the breaking out of the 
war, cannot be resettled, but others are daily likewise thrown up to 
the mercy of the enemy to the impoverishment of several numerous 
families. 

" We farther take the liberty to inform your Majesty that not- 
withstanding all these miseries, the Lords Proprietors of this Province 
instead of using any endeavours for our relief and assistance, are 
pleased to term all our endeavours to procure your Majesty's Royal 
protection the business of a faction and party. We most humbly 
assure your Majesty that it is so far from anything of that nature, 
that all the inhabitants of this Province in general are not only con- 
vinced that no human power but that of your ISIajesty can protect 
them, but earnestly and fervently desire that this once flourishing 
Province may be added to those under your happy protection." 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 238. 

2 Hist. Skctchrs of So. Ca. (Rivers), 276, note. 

3 Ibid., Ai)pendix, 464. 



UISDEK THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 571 

This address to the King was signed by the Speaker 
and the rest of the members attending the Assembly. ^ 
It was referred by liis Majesty through Mr. Secretary 
Addison to the Board of Trade ; and, on the 10th of 
May, 1717, Mr. Boone and Mr. Berresford, having been 
sent for, attended before the board and were questioned 
in regard to its representation. Tliey said they had 
lately received and presented to Lord Carteret a letter 
from the Governor and Council to the Lords Proprietors, 
dated January 26, of which they produced a duplicate, 
which was read and copy taken. They stated that, upon 
the application to Lord Carteret, the Palatine, and pre- 
senting to him a printed '' case " of the condition of the 
province, his Lordship had promised to lay the con- 
dition of affairs before his Majesty and to desire the 
necessary supplies, which they believed his Lordship had 
done. Being asked what number of men they thought 
necessary for subduing the Indians, and how long they 
proposed the men sent should continue in Carolina, they 
declared their opinion that not less than 600 would be ef- 
fective, 200 of whom might be disbanded in twelve months, 
200 in eighteen months, and 200 in two years after their 
arrival in Carolina. Mr. Boone and Mr. Berresford added 
that Lord Carteret had declared to them his willingness 
to surrender his share in it if the not doing it were such 
an obstacle as to hinder the relief of the province. 

Lord Carteret appeared before the board on tlie 31st, 

1 "Signed by Mr Speaker and the rest of the members attending the 

service of the House of Commons 

Geo. Logan. Speaker 

David Durham. Ra : Izard. Benj : De La Conseillere. Thos : Summers. 
William Gibbon. Charles Hill. Thos Lynch. Wa: Izard. Jonathan Drake. 
Richard Harris. John Williams. Thomas Waring. John Godfrey. Thomas 
Satur. John Beamor. Arthur Hall. Hugh Hext. Roger Moore. John 
Woodward. Richard Butler. James Cochran. John Russ. Tho? Townsend 
" Signed likewise by the rest of the inhabitants of this Province." 



572 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

but he did not confirm what Mr. Boone and Mr. Berres- 
ford had said about his generous offer. On the contrary, 
he questioned the right of Messrs. Boone and Berresford 
to represent the Assembly in South Carolina, that body 
having been dissolved. But the persons styling them- 
selves such, he admitted, had desired him to present their 
paper to the King, which his Lordship had done. Since 
that, however, he had had private letters from Carolina 
— no doubt from Trott — which brought advice of a peace 
having been made with the Indians, which his Lordship 
observed was probable, since the Yamassees, the first au- 
thors of the war, were cut off. He then Avent on to 
belittle the whole matter. He said there had never been 
a regular war with the Indians in Carolina. Many set- 
tlements which had been too scattered and remote from 
each other had been destroyed at several times ; but the 
whole colony was never in such danger of being lost as 
was suggested. He called attention to the fact that the 
Assembly had made no provision for the support of the 
men they asked for ; that the Lords Proprietors would 
be glad to have more men sent thither in any manner, 
but it could not be expected that his Majesty should 
send and maintain them there ; that the province may 
have been run in debt, as alleged, but that the Lords 
Proprietors had applied all their profits towards its sup- 
port, and had purchased and sent 250 muskets, which 
they had heard had actually arrived in Carolina. He 
added he did not doubt but when Colonel Johnson, the 
present Governor, arrived, he would find all things quiet 
in the province ; his Lordship, therefore, desired the 
board to suspend their report to his Majesty until fresh 
advices should arrive from thence.^ This request of Lord 
Carteret appears to have been effectual for the time. 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. II, 280-282. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 573 

While these discussions between the agents of Caro- 
lina, the Proprietors, and the Board of Trade were taking 
place in England, the General Assembly had again met in 
Charles Town, and, under Daniel, the Deputy Governor, 
were proceeding with the legislation of the province. The 
salary of Colonel Alexander Parris, the Public Receiver, 
was raised to X400, and he was authorized to appoint a 
deputy.^ An act amendatory to the election law was 
passed, whereby the qualifications of voters and members 
of the Commons were raised. The voter was required to 
have been a resident of the parish in which he offered to 
vote, and not merely a resident of the province, six months 
before the election, and to have a freehold of 50 acres of 
land, or to pay taxes for the sum of £50 current money 
of the province. The representative was required to be 
either a free-born subject of the kingdom of Great Brit- 
ain, or a foreign person naturalized by act of Parliament 
of Great Britain ; to have been twelve months resident 
in the parish he was chosen for, and to have a freehold in 
that parish of 500 acres of land, or to be worth XI 000 in 
leasehold or in cash or stock. From these provisions 
the voters and representatives from the deserted parishes 
of St. Bartholomew's and St. Helena were, however, ex- 
empted. There was a proviso allowing one to be elected 
a representative for a parish who owned a settled planta- 
tion of 500 acres, Avith ten negro slaves living on the same 
under the care of at least one white man, in any other 
parish of the same county. No person receiving any 
salary or perquisite from the Lords Proprietors was quali- 
fied to sit as a member of the Commons. ^ In 1706 the 
building of wooden frame-houses in the town had been 
declared a common nuisance and prohibited, but now it 
was represented tliat bricks were not always to be had 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 1. 2 jMd., 3, 4. 



574 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

but at such excessive rates as prevented the building up 
of waste pUices, and the act was repealed. Houses were 
allowed to be built of wood, provided the hearths and 
chimneys were of brick or stone. The act of the year 
before, for the encouragement of the importation of 
white servants, Avas found, so far from answering the 
purpose designed, to be " the chiefest discouragement " of 
their importation, and Avas also repealed. ^ 

In April the province was further alarmed by news 
of activity on the part of the pirates in the West Indies ; 
and it being probable that the Shoram, the war vessel 
that had come to Charles Town during the Indian 
troubles, would shortly be ordered elsewhere, the Com- 
mons House addressed the Deputy Governor and his 
Council upon the subject. They had received informa- 
tion, they said, that the Governor of St. Augustine had 
been advised by the Governor of Havana to be on his 
guard, as the pirates on the Bahama Islands designed 
to attack them. The Commons said that they did not 
suppose that such persons as the pirates had any regard 
to or made any difference or distinction between the 
people of any nation whatsoever, and they ought to pro- 
vide for the safety and defence of the inhabitants of this 
province. The Commons conceived it to be proper to 
address Captain Howard, commander of his Majesty's 
ship, the Shoram, to desire him to stay some time longer 
Avith his ship, so as to deter the pirates coming here. 
They therefore desired the Governor and Council to 
appoint a committee of their House to form a committee 
of the Commons in a conference to draw up sucli an 
address to Captain HoAvard. For some reason the propo- 
sition Avas not acceded to by Daniel and his Council, and 
the Slioram sailed away to Virginia Avitli orders to pro- 
1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 6, 7. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETAKY GOVERNMENT 575 

ceed without delay to England, just at the time when there 
was most urgent need for her presence on the coast. ^ 

But though Governor Daniel did not detain the 
Shoram, he promptly acted when, soon after, another 
party of pirates were taken. These were Stephen James 
de Cossey, Francis de Mont, Francis Rossoe, and Emman- 
uel Erandos, who were charged with taking the vessels 
the Turtle Dove, the Penelope, and the Virgin Queen, in 
July of the previous year, off the coast of Jamaica. 
Governor Daniel and his Council immediately issued a 
commission, appointing assistants to the Judge of Admi- 
ralty to try these men. The trial began on Monday, the 
24th of June, and continued during the week. On Sat- 
urday, the 29th, the parties were convicted. They were 
sentenced on the 3d of July, and were executed. ^ 

Notwithstanding the disastrous results of the attempted 
Scotch colony at Port Royal under Lord Cardross, and the 
immediate rising of the Indians at the instigation of the 
Spaniards upon the settling of the town of Beaufort, 
another proposition now came from Scotland to establish 
a colony between St. Augustine and the Carolina settle- 
ment. Sir Robert Montgomery proposed to the Pro- 
prietors to carry over at his own charges several families 
for settling and fortifying the most southern part of the 

1 The Carolina Pirates (S. C. Hughson) ; Johns Hopkins Univ. 
Studies, V, VI, VII, 64 ; Commons Journal. 

2 Carolina FirateSy supra, 05; xidmiralty Book, U. S. Dist.Ct. of So. 
Ca., A and B. 

The commission named as assistants to the Judge of Admiralty : 
Charles Hart and Francis Yonge, two of the members of the Council ; 
the lion. Alexander Skene ; Hon. George Logan, Speaker of the Lower 
House of Assembly ; Hon. Colonel Thomas Broughton ; Ralph Izard, 
Esq.; Captain Fhilip Dawes; Captain William Cuthhert, commander of 
the Fortune frigate ; Captain Michael Cole, commander of the Sarah 
frigate; Samuel Dean, Edward Brailsford, and Charles A. Hill, mer- 
chants. Those whose names are in italics sat in this court. 



576 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

province of Carolina beyond the Savannah, — thus to form 
a barrier to any sudden incursion of the Indians, — on the 
condition, however, that Sir Robert should be the Gov- 
ernor for life. The new province — for such, in fact, it 
was to be — was to consist of the territory between the 
Savannah and Altamaha rivers, and was to be known as 
the Margravate of Azilia. 

The proposition was submitted by the Proprietors to 
his Majesty for his concurrence ; for they now realized the 
delicate relations in which they stood to the Royal Govern- 
ment and were afraid to take such a step without the 
Royal approval, lest it might be construed as a violation 
of tlieir charter. His Majesty referred the matter to the 
Board of Trade. To this board it was represented that 
the proposed colony would be a barrier against both 
Spaniards and Indians ; that the commodities to he raised, 
varying from those then produced by the English planta- 
tions, would increase the revenue of the customs ; would 
be to the advantage of the British trade to the Mediter- 
ranean; would be a check to the encroachment of the 
French ; and would plant an honest English colony in the 
room of the horde of pirates at the Bahamas. The Attor- 
ney General's opinion was obtained that there was nothing 
prejudicial to the interests of the right of the Crown in 
the proposition, but he doubted whether the power of 
government granted to the Proprietors could be divided 
by them so as to exempt the new province from liability 
to the laws of South Carolina, which were made for the 
whole province. He suggested that it would be better 
for the Proprietors to surrender their powers of govern- 
ment to his Majesty in the territory to be erected into a 
new province, reserving to themselves the property in the 
lands,^ a similar arrangement to that which then existed 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 232, 233, 234, 256. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 577 

ill Maryland in regard to the Baltimore patent.^ This 
the Proprietors were probably unwilling to do, fearing 
that it was but an entering wedge to be inserted in 
their grant to the province at large. The suggestion 
of the Attorney General was not accepted by the Pro- 
prietors, and the scheme languished, but was appar- 
ently not altogether abandoned when the Proprietary 
Government was overthrown four years after. Then the 
Proprietors found themselves more willing to listen to the 
suggestion of the Attorney General. In 1720 we find 
Colonel John Barnwell, who was sent to England, as we 
shall see, by the Convention which overthrew the Proprie- 
tary Government, assisting the Proprietors with his infor- 
mation in regard to this territory and recommending the 
scheme. In 1720 he published a pamphlet in London, 
showing the title of the Proprietors to the territory and 
their right and authority to make the grant of the land 
contained in it, and in a letter written at the Carolina 
Coffee House, addressed to Sir Robert Montgomery, offers 
his testimony to the importance of his design and gives 
a glowing description of the country, especially of the 
islands on the coast. He writes : — r- 

" As to the four Islands which you have assign'd to the 
Purchasers who are concerned in your settlement, they 
are called St. Shnon^ Sapella^ St. Catarina and Ogeche., to 
which last before I came thence I left the Name of Mont- 
gomery. You have given them a general Denomination 
which I think they may well deserve, of the Golden Islmids 
for as to convenient Pasture, pleasant Situation profitable 
fishing and fowling they surpass any thing of that kind 
in all Carolina^'' etc. : ^ 

The project fell through, and it was left to Oglethorpe, 

1 Maryland^ Am. Com. series. 

^ An Account of the Golden Islands, by John Barnwell, London, 1720. 



578 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

fifteen years after, to establish the colony of Georgia in 
the place of Sir Robert Montgomery's Azilia. 

In the meanwhile Governor Robert Johnson had arrived 
at Charles Town, and assumed the government. He met 
the General Assembly for the first time October 29, 1717. 
Unfortunately, however much personally esteemed his 
father, Sir Nathaniel, and himself were, he had come to 
sustain the tottering powers of the l^roprietors, whose 
own folly and greed were to baffle his efforts and over- 
come wliatever influence he might otherwise have exer- 
cised. Still more unfortunately for the peace and stability 
of his rule was the influence of Trott and Rhett, who stood 
before the people as more really, if less officially, the rep- 
resentatives of the Pro|)rietors than himself. His first 
communication to the Assembly — speech as it was now 
termed — arrayed the Commons at once against him. 

"Mr Speaker and Gentlemen," ^ he said, "I have had the honor to 
be appointed your governor. I think it a peculiar happiness I am not 
a stranger to you, and that I have for many years been privy to all 
the public transactions that have passed both in England and here 
relating to the country which enables me the better to judge of your 
interests in order to be serviceable to this province. And I flatter 
myself I have had justice 'done me to be esteemed one that has been 
desirous and ready upon all occasions since my being in England to 
promote the welfare and prosperity of it to the utmost of my ability 
without partiality or private interest whenever I had an opportunity. 
And 1 hope a mutual confidence in each other's good intentions to pro- 
mote the public welfare will be the consequence of our acquaintance." 

To all of these, no doubt, the Commons cordially re- 
sponded, for the Speaker was much beloved. But now he 
came to the point of difference : — 

" I am obliged for your sakes," he continued, " to give you my 
opinion touching the disrespectful behaviour that has of late been 
shown to the Lords Proprietors in not consulting them in the applica- 

1 Commons Journal (MSS.). 



UNDER THE PROPIIIETARY GOVERNMENT 579 

tions and remonstrances in England. Such proceedings were very 
unjustifiable and impolitic. It disconcerted the measures their Lord- 
ships had taken of employing their utmost zeal and interest to serve 
you. And you must allow had they been consulted from time to 
time they were better judges than you can be how to make a proper 
application. Their Lordships notwithstanding the emissions from 
hence and vain attempts upon their prerogatives like good christians 
and patriots commiserated the calamity this provnice has laboured 
under, and whenever they could understand what your requests 
were, have more than once (particularly our Palatine) personally 
laid your remonstrances and supplications before his sacred Majesty. 
If it be supposed their charter is a bar to your relief, it is a mistake. 
His Majesty and his Parliament are too just to divest their Lordships 
of their properties without a valuable consideration," etc. 

" Let me therefore Gentlemen recommend to you," said the Gov- 
ernor, " a dutiful and respectful behaviour to them that we may merit 
their interest favour and protection which you may then be assured of, 
an earnest of which their Lordships have already shown by their 
donation to the public of all the arrears that are due to them, whether 
from lands sold or for rent and all growing rents that shall become 
due to the first May 1718, the charges of the civil government only 
deducted." 

He recommended several matters to their immediate 
consideration : the providing for the defence of the 
country for the ensuing year, the acts upon the subject 
being about to expire ; the repairing of the fortifications 
of Charles Town and Johnson Fort. He advised them 
to find some more effectual method to prevent fraud in 
packing pitch, and for the better hulling and cleaning of 
rice, for want of wliich these commodities bear but a low 
price in proportion to those of other countries at home, 
i.e. in England; to consider the deplorable condition the 
public credit, trade, and the colony in general are reduced 
to by the currency of so great a quantity of paper money, 
and to fall on some sudden and effectual means to remedy 
the same. 

"The Lords Proprietors," the Governor said, "expect 



580 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

their former price of three pounds per hundred acres of 
land, according to an act of 6 of Queen Anne. The great 
disproportion the money now has, has obliged me and my 
Council to sfive orders to the Receiver General to take 
twelve pounds per hundred acres being now but an equiva- 
lent. That order 1 hope will be but of short duration 
since I promise myself you will concur in some measures 
to make the money better." 

He advised them to make the acts of Assembly more gen- 
erally useful " by their being methodized fit for the press " 
and sent to England to be printed ; to consider seriously of 
the very great rates of all provisions in Charles Town, to 
remedy which he advised the Assembly not only to regulate 
the prices of butcher's meat in the town, but also to lay a 
duty on the exportation of all provisions, rice only excepted ; 
and to take off any duty then on any provisions imported. 
This, he added, will enable us, if there should be occasion, 
to assist Sir Robert Montgomery or any other new settler. 
He wished a state house and public prison built, for want of 
the latter of which he said criminals and debtors escaped 
daily, to the impoverishment of creditors, to the great 
detriment of trade and encouragement of offenders, to the 
eluding of justice, and endangering the public peace. 

But, above all, he recommended to the Assembly to let 
true religion and virtue be their constant care, which he 
doubted not would naturally induce them to bring in a 
bill for the better support and maintenance of the clergy, 
and therel)y give sufficient encouragement for good, pious, 
and learned men to come among them. 

Tlie committee appointed to answer this address were 
instructed by the House to " touch slightly (but not by 
way of argument or submission) on what the last two 
Assemblies had done heretofore in addressing his Majesty 
to take the province under his protection. And as to the 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 581 

donations of the Lords Proprietors to the said province 
that they take notice of the design of the House to con- 
sider thereof at the proper time."^ They did not regard 
the taking X12 for X3 as a donation. Bat if there were 
right and justice in any matter on the part of the Pro- 
prietors, it was surely in this. They had agreed to let 
their lands for X3 per liundred acres at a time when the 
value of the pound in currency was equal, or nearly so, 
to the pound sterling. ^ They were objecting to the 
emissions of paper money in Carolina on general public 
grounds, to which the Governor's speech called the atten- 
tion of the Assembly; they certainly were not called upon 
themselves to take the objectionable paper which now 
would pass only at the rate of four to one — that is to 
say, twenty shillings for five ^ — in payment of the pound 
for which they had bargained. But the House was in a 
quarrelsome mood, and sneered at the munificence of the 
surrender of their arrears by the Proprietors, Avhich, by 
the Governor's notice, was now limited to extend only to 
the 3d of May, 1716. The Assembly declined the dona- 
tion. Governor Johnson was anxious that they should 
accept it, and desired them to order a rent-roll made for 
the benefit of the Proprietors. " As the Assembly is to 
pass wholesome laws," he said, "even to private persons, 
much more to the Lords Proprietors who are our masters ! " 
The Assembly took offence at this and replied: "We 
cannot but approve of your Honor's care of these Lord- 
ships' interests who are, as you say, your masters." "If 
you look over their charters," was the answer, " you will 
find them to be your masters likewise."* 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 281 ; Commons Joiirnal (MSS.)- 

2 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 709. 

^ Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 280, note; Council Journals 
(MSS.). 4/6icZ.,281. 



582 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Among the measures for the defence of the colony 
whicli had been adopted immediately after the raid of 
the Spaniards and the destruction of Lord Cardross's 
colony, was the passage of an act providing for the 
maintenance of a store of j)owder. In those days all 
merchant ships, as well as others, were more or less 
armed for their defence against pirates, and carried a 
supply of ammunition. The act levied a tax in kind 
upon powder from every ship entering a port of the 
province ; and in case of failure to deliver this tax in 
kind, the ship was assessed <£9 for every ton which the 
ship measured. The Governor w^as authorized by this 
act to appoint a person to receive the poAvder, or its 
equivalent in money. The act was amended from time 
to time, reducing the amount of the tax, but continuing 
the plan for maintaining a store of powder for emer- 
gencies. But as in the case of the Receiver General in 
his father's administration, the Assembly had taken the 
appointment of this officer to themselves. Governor 
Johnson, determined to gather in as far as possible all 
powers yielded to the Assembly in former administra- 
tions, took the opportunity of the appointment of this 
officer to try conclusions with that body, and to regain 
the ground lost for the Proprietors on that occasion. 
The House had elected Colonel Michael Brewton to be 
powder-receiver. " The keys of the magazine," said 
Johnson, " shall be kept only by the officer appointed by 
the Governor who is military chief, and grants commis- 
sions ; the House shall forthwith order the keys de- 
livered to Maj. Wm. l^lakeway whom he has commissioned 
commander of the fortification and to take charge of 
the magazines which office cannot be separated from that 
of powder receiver." The House refused to proceed in 
business if this demand was insisted upon, and prepared 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 583 

an advertisement to be made public in such a case. 
The Governor partly yielded, and proposed for the sake 
of peace that both officers might be appointed. " My 
officer shall keep the magazine and give receipts to your 
officer for all powder delivered into his keeping." 
'-' What is the use,'' replied the House, ^' of a powder- 
receiver who don't keep the powder ? " " But I insist 
on keeping it," said Johnson, " for I am his Majesty's the 
King's Lieutenant." The following advertisement was 
immediately fixed up at the watch-house by order of 
the Assembly : — 

" Whereas in and by an act entitled an act declaring the right of 
the House of Commons for the time being to nominate the Public 
Receiver and duly ratified in open Assembly the 5th day of July 1707, 
among other things therein contained, it is enacted that the power right 
and authority of nominating and appointing the public receiver, and 
comptroller, powder receiver and all such officers who receive a settled 
salary out of the public treasury of this province, shall always remain 
and be solely in the disposal of the House of Commons for the time 
being, who shall put out, call to an account, and put in place from 
time to time all such officers according to their discretion ; and 
whereas this present House of Commons did on Saturday the 7th of 
December instant nominate and appoint Col. Michael Brewton to 
be powder-receiver in this province, and in that station to act and 
do in all things as the laws thereof now or hereafter to be in force 
shall direct and order him: — These are therefore to give notice and 
require all masters and commanders of ships and vessels, liable by 
law to pay any powder to the powder-receiver, who shall after the 
date hereof clear out and depart this province, that they pay the 
powder due and payable according to law for the several respective 
ships they shall Jiappen to be masters or commanders of, unto 
Colonel Michael Brewton appointed powder-receiver as aforesaid, 
and to no person else inhabiting in the same whatsoever, as they will 
answer the contrary by being prosecuted as the law directs. Signed 
by order of the House. George Logan Speaker." ^ 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 282, 283. 



584 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

But notwitlistiindiiig these disagreements between the 
Governor and Commons, some legislation Avas accom- 
plished at this session. Above all things, the Governor 
had recommended to the care of the Assembly the main- 
tenance of true religion and virtue and the support of the 
clergy. To this the Assembly responded without reli- 
gious controversy. They erected another parish in the 
upper part of St. Andrew's, to be called St. George's,^ 
and passed an act for the further encouragement of the 
clergy of the province by advancing their salaries, by 
which the rector of St. Philip's, Charles Town, was given an 
additional salary of XlOO per annum, and the rectors of 
the other parishes XoO.^ An elaborate act for the bet- 
ter governing and regulating of white servants was also 
enacted.^ By another, the Governor was empowered to 
enlist 140 men, to be drawn from the companies through- 
out the province, and to organize them for its defence.* 
An additional act to that for laying an imposition on 
liquors, goods, and merchandise, of the 30th of June, 
1716, was passed, by Avhich the duty of X30 on each 
slave brought into the province was continued and cer- 
tain doubts in regard to the same were removed. A ncAv 
feature of the act, Avhich was to be another cause of dif- 
ference with the Proprietors, was that all liquors, goods, 
negroes, wares, merchandise, imported into the province 
in any ship or vessel owned by the inhabitants of the 
province and built in the province, were declared free 
of all duties ; and all such goods, etc., imported in ships 
or vessels built here, whose owners lived out of the 
province, should be liable to but half duties ; and goods 
imported in ships or vessels built out of the province, 
but owned by inhabitants of it, were liable to but three- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 9. 

2 Ibid., 11. -^ Ibid., 14. * /ftj^^.^ 23. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 585 

quiU'tei'S duties.^ An additional act was also passed to 
continue the currency of the bills of credit. ^ 

The pirates were again on the coast and demanded the 
attention of the new Governor. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 32. 2 j^^yZ., 34. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

1717-18 

Before sending Captain Rogers and his small fleet to 
New Providence, the King had issued a proclamation 
promising pardon to all pirates who should surrender 
themselves within twelve months. This proclamation 
was published throughout Carolina. On the 3d of De- 
cember, 1717, Governor Johnson sent in a message to the 
Commons upon the subject. 

" His Majesty," he said, " being pleased to issue out 
his Royal Proclamation extending his pardon to all pirates 
that shall lay hold on the same, and surrendering them- 
selves according to the time limited in said proclamation ; 
and we having several of our inhabitants that unwarily 
and Avithout due consideration have engaged in that ill 
course of life and are now resident at the Bahama Islands, 
and otlier places adjacent, I think it a duty incumbent 
on me, with all speed to send his Majesty's proclamation 
thither to let our people see that they may return hither 
again in safety to us, if in time they embrace his Majesty's 
royal favor ; therefore some proper person must be thought 
of to carry this proclamation to them ; and Col. Parris 
being willing to undertake the same (who is very well 
knoAvn to all the inhabitants of this Province) if you can 
spare him from tlie Public business ; I shall give him my 
instructions accordingl}^'' ^ 

1 Commons Journal (S. C. Hughson), Johns Hopkins Univ. Stndioi, 
2 series, V, VI, VII, 67. In the following account of the operations of 

586 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 587 

There is no record that Colonel Parris ever went to 
the Bahamas with the King's proclamation, or of the ac- 
ceptance of its offers by any of the inhabitants of Carolina, 
who had so " unwarily " engaged in that ill course of life ; 
nor is there any record of tlie numbers who had left the 
province for that purpose. There is no reason to believe 
that there were many. Governor Johnson speaks of them 
as '' several," which may be any small number more than 
two ; but there were not enough to arouse sufficient in- 
terest to induce further action in regard to the matter 
of their pardon. The author of the essay upon the sub- 
ject to which we have had repeated occasion to refer is 
mistaken in supposing that Governor Johnson referred 
to Carolinians in his communication to the Proprietors, in 
which he complains that tlie proclamation of peace had 
worked no good effect upon the pirates, as they shortly 
returned to their evil courses. The Governor was, in this 
letter, speaking of the pirates generally ; there is no allu- 
sion in this paper to any from Carolina. In a community 
in which there were constantly new-comers, adventurers 
from all parts of Europe and America, it would have been 
strange if there had not been some ready to join in the wild 
life of the buccaneers, which had, until so recently, been 
encouraged by the powers that were now attempting to 
suppress them. There were no doubt some such, as ob- 
served in the introductory chapter, but the title of the 
essay to which we have referred, to wit. The Carolina 
Pirates and Colonial Commerce^ is misleading. Pirates 
infested the coast of Carolina ; but they were in no sense 
Carolina pirates. Of the forty-five who constituted the 

the pirates on the Carolina coast, the resistance of the colony and their 
ultimate defeat, the facts are taken generally from this most exhaustive 
study of the subject by Mr. Ilughson, and his statement often followed 
with but little change in phraseology. 



588 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

party taken in 1699, there were Englishmen, Frenchmen, 
Portuguese, and Indians, but no Carolinians ; among the 
thirty-eight pirates seized and brought into Charles Town 
for trial 1716-18, there were but three Avho claimed to 
have been formerly inhabitants of the province. Upon 
their trials one of these was acquitted ; two were among 
the convicted. Judging from tlie citizenship of those 
who were taken and tried, and most of whom were exe- 
cuted, it would have been more in consonance with the 
facts to have spoken of them as British pirates on the 
coast of Carolina. They came from England, Scotland, 
Ireland, and the West Indies. 

Captain Rogers arrived at New Providence in July, 
1718, and took possession of the colony for the Crown. 
He found a large number of pirates there, most of whom 
surrendered and took the oath. But one, Charles Vane, 
refused to do so. He pursued a more desperate course. 
When he heard that Rogers had arrived off the bar, he 
wrote him a letter offering to surrender, on the condition 
that he would be permitted to dispose of what spoil he 
had in the manner that suited himself. Receiving no as- 
surances, he determined to escape. In crossing the bar, 
he was met by two of Rogers's vessels, with whom he ex- 
changed shots, and, after several exciting adventures, suc- 
ceeded in getting safely to sea with ninety men, in a sloop 
belonging to one of his officers named Yeates, and made 
for the Carolina coast, where he engaged in several pirati- 
cal exploits. While the action of the British authorities 
did much to relieve the West Indies, it greatly aggravated 
the situation in Carolina, at the instance of the colonists 
of which the expedition had mainly been undertaken. 
Findins: themselves driven out from Ncav Providence and 
the Bahamas generally, the pirates established themselves 
on the North Carolina coast ; and, before many months 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 589 

had passed, tliey swarmed into the Cape Fear and Pamlico 
rivers in greater numbers than the government of that 
weak colony could possibly oppose.^ 

While Rogers was on his voyage to New Providence, 
early in June, Edward Thatch,^ who, under the sobriquet 
of "Black Beard," had spread terror along the entire North 
American coast, suddenly appeared off Charles Town with 
a powerful equipment, and began a series of most fla- 
grant outrages. It is said that he had come in under 
the King's proclamation in January, and surrendered to 
Governor Eden of North Carolina ; but the temptations of 
the old free life proving too strong, before the end of the 
winter he again fitted out from North Carolina, and was 
once more harrying the coast, and capturing vessels of all 
nations. It was during one of these cruises that he visited 
the Bay of Honduras, where he met Stede Bonnet, late of 
Barbadoes, and the two returned to Carolina together, 
taking numerous prizes by the way. From the captured 
vessels he recruited his force so that by the time he 
reached the South Carolina coast he was in command of a 
fleet consisting of a ship of more than forty guns, and 
three attendant sloops, on board of which were above 400 
men. 

On the 18th of June, 1718, Governor Johnson writes to 
the Proprietors : "About fourteen days since, four sail ap- 
peared in sight of the town, immediately took the pilot boat 
which was stationed on the bar, and in a few days took 
eight or nine outward-bound vessels with several of the 
best inhabitants of Charles Town on board. "^ Among 
the passengers thus taken was Samuel Wragg, a member 

1 S. C. Hughson, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 2 series, V, VI, VII, QQ. 

2 Also spelled " Teach," but Ilughson, whom we closely follow in this 
account, adopts the spelling in the text. 

3 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Co., vol. II, 236. 



590 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

of the Council of the province, and his son William, then 
but four years of age, who became one of the most dis- 
tinguished men in the American colonies, and to whose 
memory there is a tablet in Westminster Abbey. How 
the pirates became aware that they had made so distin- 
guished a prisoner, says Hughson, is not known ; but, 
having ascertained the fact, they determined to make the 
best of their good fortune. At this time the fleet was in 
need of certain medicines, and Thatch directed his sur- 
geon to prepare a list of the desired articles, and sent him 
to demand them of Governor Johnson. Arming a boat, 
he sent it up to the town in command of one of his offi- 
cers named Richards. The officer was accompanied by a 
Mr. Marks, a captured citizen who was ordered to lay the 
situation before the Governor, and to inform him if the 
necessary supplies were not immediately forthcoming and 
the men permitted to return unharmed, the heads of Mr. 
Wragg and the other Charles Town prisoners would be 
sent to him. Marks Avas given two days to accomplish 
his mission, and the prisoners, who had been acquainted 
with the demand, and the penalty of its refusal, awaited, 
it may well be imagined, with the most intense anxiety 
the return of the embassy. Two days j)assed, and the 
party did not return . Thatch suspected that his man had 
been seized by the Governor, and notified Wragg that the 
other prisoners and himself should prepare for immediate 
death. He was persuaded, however, to stay this cruel 
order for at least a day, and, while awaiting the expira- 
tion of that time, a message was received from Marks that 
their boat had been overturned by a squall, and that, after 
many difficulties, they had succeeded in reaching Charles 
Town. Tliis explanation satisfied Thatch for a while, and 
he gave the prisoners the freedom of the vessel until the 
third day, when, losing patience, he again swore that he 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 591 

would be revenged on the colony for the supposed arrest 
of his men, by putting Wragg and their other captive to 
death. The story is told by Johnson in his Hhtory of the 
Pirates^ that, in order to save themselves, the prisoners 
agreed to pilot the fleet into the harbor and assist Thatch 
in battering down the town ; but Hughson, in his stud}^ of 
the subject, very properly discredits the story. Wragg's 
high character would, of itself, be a sufficient ground for 
refusing it belief unless substantiated by higher evidence 
than that of the pirates themselves. It is not improbable 
that the pilot captured off the bar would have been forced 
to bring in their ships had the pirates so desired ; but it 
is altogether improbable that Thatch would have vent- 
ured his forty guns against the 100 which lined the forti- 
fications of the town, and risked his vessels in the harbor 
where Governor Johnson and Rhett would have had him 
under such disadvantage. He could enforce his terrible 
threat upon the lives of valued citizens without danger to 
himself, as he lay outside the bar ; to have come in would 
have lessened his power over his prisoners, and endangered 
his own safety. 

In the meantime the greatest consternation prevailed in 
the town. The friends of the captives were strong and 
numerous. Would the Governor sacrifice their lives rather 
than allow these people, even though they were pirates, a 
few dollars' worth of medicines? Might he not now save 
the lives of valued citizens, and afterwards avenge the 
insult to the province? Governor Johnson convened his 
Council and laid the situation before it. The demands of 
the pirates were acceded to. The medicines were pre- 
pared without delay, and in a few hours Marks, accom- 
panied by his guard, was on his way to the bar. A large 
quantity of rich spoil having been secured from the capt- 
ured vessels, Thatch sent Wragg and the rest of the 



592 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

prisoners asliore in a half-naked condition. After suffer- 
ing numerous hardships they made their way back to 
Charles Town, glad to escape with their lives. Thatch is 
said to have secured 16000 in specie from Wragg alone. ^ 

From Charles Town Thatch went to North Carolina, 
where he remained for some time in comparative idleness; 
then, resuming his course, his depredations were extended 
up the coast as far as Pennsylvania, not infrequently vis- 
iting Philadelphia. His career w^as, however, soon ended. 
His crew was captured and himself slain by a party 
organized by Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, and fitted 
out to clear the coasts of that province. 

In his letter of the 18th of June, Governor Johnson had 
appealed to the Board of Proprietors for a frigate or two 
to cruise about for the protection of the Carolina com- 
merce. " Hardly a ship goes to sea," he wrote, ''but falls 
into the hands of the pirates. "^ But no assistance came. 
During the summer the pirates gave little trouble to the 
few vessels which sailed Avith their indifferent cargoes ; 
but as soon as the autumn set in, familiar as they were 
with the Carolina trade, they began to prepare for active 
operations, as it was at that season when the rice and 
other products of the province brought the rich mer- 
chantmen to the town with their goods and specie for 
exchange. During the months of September and Octo- 
ber their career found its culmination in a series of 
exploits unparalleled in audacity since the days of the 
previous century, when the buccaneers in the West 
Indies, under the leadership of the infamous Henry Mor- 
gan, held the seas against the fleets of the then powerful 
kingdom of Spain. 

In company with Thatch on several of his cruises, in- 

1 Hughson, ante. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 257. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 593 

eluding that off Charles Town harbor just related, there 
had been one, the most remarkable of all the sea robbers 
of this period, and whose destiny it was to perish upon 
the gallows in the town he with Thatch had so insulted. 
This was Major Stede Bonnet, the last man, as it has been 
said, who could have been expected to have launched out 
upon such an abandoned and desperate career. A man 
past the meridian of life, of good antecedents, possessed 
of wealth, and of a considerable degree of education and 
refinement, as such accomplishments were in those rude 
times, there was every reason for him to remain at home 
and end his days in peace and honor. He had served 
with some distinction in the Army of Barbadoes, had been 
honorably retired after attaining the rank of Major, and 
was residing at Bridgetown at peace with all the world, 
and in good favor with the citizens of that thriving 
colony. Besides this. Bonnet had no knowledge of the 
sea, and knew so little of the requirements of a sailor's life 
that his first experiences resulted only in disaster. Indeed, 
it was said, and probably with truth, that his mind was 
disordered. 

It was early in the year 1717 that Bonnet began his 
piratical career. Being a man of wealth, he had no diffi- 
culty in finding such a vessel and equipment as he 
desired ; and one dark night, in company with a crew 
of seventy desperate men, he sailed across the Bridge- 
town bar in a sloop of ten guns, which he had named the 
Revenge — a name, as it has been observed, common in all 
the pirate fleets of that time. He made directly for the 
Capes of Virginia, and stationed himself in that great 
higliAvay of commerce. In a few days he had taken a 
number of merchant vessels, several of which he burned 
after plundering them and sending tlie crews ashore. 
Preying for a time upon tlie commerce of New York and 
2q 



594 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

New England, P)onnet sailed for South Carolina, and 
came off the bar of Charles Town in August, 1717. He 
had not waited here long before a sloop belonging to 
Barbadoes hove in sight, followed almost immediately by 
a New England brigantine. The brigantine he sent into 
Charles Town after relieving her of all her valuables ; the 
sloop he retained for his own use, dismissing the creAV. 

The brigantine had scarcely crossed the bar of Charles 
Town when Bonnet weighed anchor and set sail for the 
coast of North Carolina to refit his vessel for another 
cruise. The Barbadian sloop he burned. After refitting 
the Revenge^ Bonnet again put to sea, but without any 
definite determination as to his course. His men had 
discovered his ignorance of nautical affairs soon after 
leaving Barbadoes, and it was only by the influence of 
his superior courage and by means of threats and frequent 
punishments that Bonnet prevented an open mutiny. The 
Revenge was now steered for the Bay of Honduras, the 
great rendezvous of pirates. Here Bonnet met Thatch, 
and the two entered upon a cruise together. Thatch, soon 
perceiving that Bonnet knew nothing of seamanship, and 
deeming him an unsafe man to be in command of so fine 
a sloop as the Revenge^ coolly deposed him, and placing 
Richards, one of his own officers, in charge, he took 
Bonnet on board his own vessel, where he gave him a 
position of ease and security. Bonnet, however indig- 
nant, was powerless to resist. Thatch, with a desperate 
crew in sympathy with him and sharing his contempt of 
Bonnet, was all-powerful. 

The first prize taken by Thatch's newly organized 
squadron was the Adventure from Jamaica, whose mas- 
ter, David Herriot, himself joining the pirates, was des- 
tined to play a tragic part in Bonnet's subsequent career. 
Bonnet, willingly or unw^illingly, was in company with 



tJNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 595 

Thatcli on several cruises, including the celebrated one 
off Charles Town harbor in June, 1718, after which he 
sailed in the same fleet to Topsail Inlet, North Carolina, 
where the company was disbanded. 

Thus released from the control of Thatch, Bonnet was 
enabled to resume command and proceed to sea on his 
own responsibility. Availing himself of the King's proc- 
lamation of the year before, he proceeded to Bath, where 
he surrendered to Governor Eden, took the oath, and 
received a certificate of pardon. At the same time, he 
procured a clearance for his vessel for the Island of St. 
Thomas, announcing his intention of applying for a com- 
mission there as a privateer against the Spaniards. Thus 
armed with clearance papers and a pardon by a legally 
constituted authority, in the name of his Majesty, Bonnet 
was prepared to continue his career of crime and blood- 
shed under better auspices than those enjoyed by any 
pirate since the time that Kidd sailed from England 
with the personal sanction of King William himself. 
Returned to Topsail Inlet, he rescued a number of sailors 
who had been marooned by Thatch, — that is, put ashore 
on a desert island and abandoned, — and shipped them 
on the Revenge under the pretence of taking them to 
St. Thomas. Having thus procured a good crew, having 
himself attained considerable proficiency in seamanship, 
and secured the confidence of his men by his good fight- 
ing qualities, he determined first to avenge himself u])on 
Thatch. But Thatch had sailed away. Learning that he 
liad gone up the coast. Bonnet followed fast after him, but 
his quest was unsuccessful ; and after cruising about for 
a few days, he proceeded to the coast of Virginia. On 
this expedition, T^onnet appointed David Herriot as sail- 
ing-master of his sloop. Bonnet at this time changed 
his name to that of " Captain Thomas," — probably from 



596 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

fear of the consequences if captured after having so re- 
cently accepted the King's pardon. He changed also the 
name of his vessel to that of the Royal James. Having 
thus prepared himself for the most desperate enterprises, 
Bonnet announced his true intentions to his crew and 
declared his purpose to sail up the coast toward New 
England in search of booty. This announcement was 
said to have been a surprise to some of the men, and 
some who were afterwards captured were acquitted on 
their trial upon tlie ground that they had not assented 
to the piracy. Bonnet proceeded up the coast, commit- 
ting several piracies, and, sailing into Delaware Bay, 
took several valuable merchantmen and terrorized the 
whole country.. Among the captures in Delaware Bay 
were those of the sloop Francis, Captain Peter Man- 
waring, and the sloop Fortune, Captain Thomas Read. 
These captures were profitable ones, and, satisfied with 
the result of this cruise. Bonnet returned to Cape Fear, 
where the fleet arrived in August, 1718, and immediately 
set his men to overhauling and repairing the sloop for 
another expedition. 

Governor Johnson and the people of South Carolina 
were burning with the desire to avenge the insult inflicted 
upon the colony the June before ; and though the prov- 
ince was greatly reduced financially by the expenses of 
the Indian wars, they determined to expend every energy 
in driving the freebooter from their coast. When the 
news, therefore, readied the Governor that the pirates 
were rendezvousing at Cape P'ear, it was at once deter- 
mined not to await their appearance again off the bar of 
Charles Town, but to seek them out in their place of 
refuge and destroy them. 

Colonel Rhett's seamanship came again to the assistance 
of the colony. He waited upon the (lovernor and asked 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 597 

permission to fit out two vessels against the pirate, who, 
rumor said, was in fighting trim with a sloop of ten guns 
and a hardy crew of sixty men. A commission was issued 
to Rhett, and he pressed into service two sloops, — the 
Kenry^ Captain John Masters, and the Sea Nymph^ Cap- 
tain Fayrer Hall. Tlie Henry^ the larger vessel of the 
two, was fitted with eight guns and seventy men, and was 
selected by Rhett as his flagship. The Sea Nymph car- 
ried the same number of guns and sixty men. 

On September 10 Colonel Rhett went on board the 
Henry. But just as he was about to weigli anchor, the 
immediate object of his expedition was suddenly changed 
by a piece of startling intelligence. A small sloop, with 
one Cook in command, belonging to Antigua, came into 
port, and reported that she had been overhauled and plun- 
dered by the most famous pirate of the times, Charles 
Vane, who had just escaped, as we have seen, from 
Rogers's fleet, and who now lay in front of the harbor 
with a brigantine of twelve guns and ninety men. Cook 
also reported that Vane had captured two other vessels 
bound for Charles Town, one a Barbadian sloop, Captain 
Dill commanding, and the other a brigantine from the 
Guinea coast with a cargo of over ninety negroes. The 
negroes had been removed from the brigantine and placed 
on board a sloop commanded by Vane's companion, Yeates, 
which Vane had been using as a tender. Yeates, finding 
himself in charge of a good sloop witli several guns, a 
crew of fifteen men, and a valuable cargo, determined to 
desert Vane, and accordingly at midnight sailed away to 
the south. Vane discovered the treachery before many 
hours, and was in hot pursuit, but finding no traces of the 
fugitive, he had returned to Charles Town just in time to 
intercept four vessels bound out for London. Two of 
these escaped and continued their voyage, but the Nep- 



598 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

tune^ Captain King, carrying sixteen guns, and the Em- 
peror^ Captain Power, with ten guns, were both taken, 
with valuable cargoes. 

The immediate object of Rhett's expedition was thus 
changed ; on the 15th of September, Rhett crossed the 
bar, and, having learned from Cook that Vane intended 
going into an inlet to the south to repair, he stood down 
the coast for several leagues, scouring the rivers and 
creeks without success ; and, finding no signs of the 
pirate, and believing all danger from this quarter to be 
past, lie proceeded to the execution of his original design 
without returning to make report to Governor Johnson. 

In the meantime, Charles Town had again been thrown 
into a state of agitation by the news of the landing of a 
party of pirates at some distance to the south. The intel- 
ligence was brought by no other than one of the pirate 
crew ; and when it was learned that such a character had 
arrived and requested an audience with the Governor, the 
people, remembering a similar embassy which had been 
sent on by Thatch some months previous, were seized with 
great consternation. It was soon learned, however, that 
the pirate's errand was a peaceful one. He informed 
Governor Johnson that Yeates, who liad escaped from 
Vane, had put into North Edisto River with his cargo 
of negroes, and wished to know if pardon would be 
granted him and his crew if they came to the city, de- 
livered up the negroes, and took the oath of allegiance. 
An affirmative reply was returned, and shortly afterwards 
Yeates and his fifteen men came in with the negroes, 
delivered them to the authorities, and received their cer- 
tificates of i^ardon. 

Rhett sailed for Cape Fear about September 20. He 
spent some time in exploring the coast in search of Vane, 
and it was not until the evening of the 26th that he 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 599 

sighted the great headland from which Nurtli Carolina's 
chief river derives its name. The mouth of the stream 
was obstructed by sand bars which could not be crossed 
with safety without an experienced pilot, and the pilot 
whose services Rhett had engaged seems to have had no 
knowledge whatever of the channel. The sloops had 
scarcely entered the mouth of the river when both ran 
aground, but not before they had sighted the topmasts 
of the pirate and his two prizes over a point of land 
some distance up the stream. Rhett could not get his 
vessels afloat until late in the night, and was therefore 
compelled to wait for dawn before making any hostile 
movement. 

The pirates were not found off their guard. The 
watch, posted to give timely warning of the approach of 
any vessel, reported the appearance of Rhett's fleet im- 
mediately after it crossed the bar. In the growing dusk 
it was impossible to distinguish whether or not they were 
merchantmen, and Bonnet, or Thomas, as he now called 
himself, manned three armed boats and sent them to 
reconnoitre. They had not come within gunshot when, 
perceiving the character of Rhett's ships, they hastened 
back to the Royal James and reported the result of their 
observations. 

Bonnet understood at once that the break of day would 
bring on a fight that would be to the death, and he began 
preparations immediately for the heaviest combat of his 
piratical career. All night the crew, incited to constant 
vigilance and unceasing labor by alternate threats and 
promises, worked clearing the decks and making ready 
for action. 

On board the Henry and the Sea Nymph no less active 
preparations were made. When Bonnet's men came doAvn 
the river early in the evening, the South Carolinians antici- 



600 HISTORY OF. SOUTH CAROLINA 

pated an immediate attack, and, fearing that it might yet 
be made, the}- lay on their arms all night. 

The sun had barely risen above the headlands which 
command the entrance to the river, on Saturday the 27th, 
when the South Carolinians, looking across the point of 
land behind which the pirates lay, saw the sails of the 
Royal James being run up the masts and heard the rattle 
of the chains as the anchors were hoisted to the deck. 
A moment later the pirate craft swung round before the 
breeze, which was blowing straight off the land, and with 
all sail set came flying down the river in the attempt to 
pass the place where the two sloops lay at anchor. 

Bonnet's design was evident. He saw that his oppo- 
nents outnumbered him two to one, and he determined to 
maintain a running conflict as he drove through to reach 
the open sea. Rhett saw his purpose, and both sloops 
weighed anchor and made for Bonnet as he rounded the 
shelving point of land. Taking a position on either 
quarter of the Royal James^ with a view to boarding, 
the Henry and the Sea Nymph bore down in such a direc- 
tion as to force Bonnet to steer close to the shore. Rhett 
had planned this movement without any knowledge of 
the river, and it proved as disastrous to his own vessels as 
to that of the enemy. In a few moments the Royal James 
was aground, and the attacking sloops, unable to come 
about with sufficient dispatch, ran into the same shoal 
water, and were soon hard and fast on the sandy bottom 
of the channel. The Henry grounded within pistol shot of 
the pirate, on the latter's bow, while the Sea JVyinph^ in her 
endeavor to cut off the flight, struck the bank so far ahead 
as to be completely out of range, and was of no service un- 
til five hours later, when she floated off on the rising tide. 

As soon as it was found impossible to get the Henry 
afloat, Colonel Rhett gave orders for a heavy fire to be 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 601 

opened, and the sloop, with her ten guns, began pouring 
broadsides into the pirate, while the crew kept up a con- 
tinual lire with small arms, which did almost as much 
execution as the heavier fire from deck. During this 
part of the fight the South Carolinians were at a tre- 
mendous disadvantage. When the Henry and the Royal 
James went aground, both careened in the same direction, 
so that the deck of the pirate was turned away from the 
Henry^ while every foot of the latter's deck was merci- 
lessly exposed. The heavy shot from the South Caro- 
linians could only take effect on the hull of the pirate, 
while their own deck could be swept from end to end at 
every discharge. Lying in these positions, the two ves- 
sels maintained for five hours a continuous and bloody 
contest. The South Carolinians, though under the most 
trying conditions, conducted themselves with the most 
dauntless courage. Exposed as was their position, it 
Avould seem certain death to man the guns ; but notwith- 
standing this, every man stood to his post without a 
thought of flinching, and the conflict was not permitted 
to languish for a single moment. 

The pirates saw their advantage from the beginning, 
and availed themselves of it in every possible way. For 
some time it seemed certain that the victory would be 
theirs, and, in spite of the spirit displayed by Khett and 
his men. Bonnet considered it but a matter of a few hours 
when the pirate ensign would triumph over the colors of 
the King. They " made a wiff in their bloody flag," says 
a contemporary account, " and beckoned Avith their hats 
in derision of our people to come on board them ; which 
they only answered with cheerful huzzas and told them 
it would soon be their turn.''^ 

1 Mr. Hughson, whose graphic story of this hattlc between the South 
Carolinians and the pirates we have taken ^Xmoat verbatim.^ says, in a note, 



602 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Both sides were confident ; but tlie pirates, who enjoyed 
such an advantage at the beginning of the conflict, had 
a great disappointment in store for them. The issue of 
the battle now depended on the tide ; victory would with- 
out doubt be with the party whose vessel was first afloat. 
For five hours the flood poured up the river, and it was 
late in the day before it was high enough to lift the ves- 
sels from their stranded positions. The pirates under- 
stood the situation fully, and one can imagine the con- 
sternation which seized upon the crew of the Royal James 
when they saw the Henry slowly righting herself as the 
rising flood swept higher and higher around her bows. 
Many of the crew declared for immediate surrender, but 
Bonnet refused to listen to such counsel. Under the 
stress of excitement, the courage which failed him so 
ignominiously at the last was roused to a desperate 
pitch. He swore, according to the testimony of one of 
his party who turned State's evidence, he would fire the 
ship's magazine and send the entire crew to the bottom 
before he would submit ; and, drawing his pistols, he 
threatened to scatter the deck with the brains of any 
man who would not resist to the last should Rhett 
attempt to come on board. Bonnet's courageous con- 
duct did not avail, however. There were spirits in her 
crew as determined as he, who preferred to take the 

that his account is taken from a pamphlet written from Charles Town, 
and published in London in 1710, entitled Trijals of Major Stede Bonnet 
and Other Pirates. The account of these trials given by Howell (State 
Trials, vol. XV, 1231), he observes, is evidently taken from this pamplilet. 
Mr. Hughson states that through the courtesy of Mr. Daniel Ravenel of 
Charleston he had been enabled to make full extracts from this rare pub- 
lication. Through the courtesy of Mr. Daniel Ravenel, son of the former, 
the author of this work has been enabled also to peruse this valuable 
pamphlet, and thus to verify Mr. Hughson's admirable account of the 
battle, which he has adopted. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 603 

chances of a trial or a pardon rather than to brave the 
death a further resistance would immediately incur, and 
surrender was determined upon. 

While the pirates were angrily debating the course they 
should pursue, Rhett set his crew to work and tempo- 
rarily repaired the damage sustained by the rigging ; 
and, assuring himself that the hull of the Henry was 
intact, lie stood for the Royal Jaines with the intention 
of boarding her promptly if this should be necessary to 
force a surrender. At this juncture, however, a flag of 
truce was received, and, after a few minutes of parley, 
the Royal James surrendered unconditionally. On board- 
ing her, Rhett, who had not known who was the pirate 
chief, was surprised to learn that his captive — Captain 
Thomas, as he was styled — was none other than the 
notorious Stede Bonnet, whose name was now known 
along the coast of every colony from Jamaica to New- 
foundland. 

As the Henry had borne the brunt of the fight, her loss 
was far greater than that of her companion sloop. She 
had ten killed and fourteen wounded, several of whom 
died afterwards of their injuries. The Sea Nymph had 
two killed and fourteen wounded. Several of the 
wounded of this vessel also died subsequently, for 
Judge Trott, in passing sentence upon Bonnet, stated 
that eighteen South Carolinians had lost their lives in 
this expedition. The pirates, in consequence of their 
sheltered position, suffered much less severely. Seven of 
the crew were killed and four wounded, two of whom 
died soon afterwards. There is a tradition that Rhett 
was shot through the body, but circumstances do not 
countenance the story. ^ 

When the struggle of the 27th was at an end and 
1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 285, note. 



604 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Rhett examined his little fleet, lie found that it had 
been much injured by the pirate guns, and would require 
considerable repair before it could be trusted to stand 
the return voyage down the coast to Charles Town. He 
accordingly remained at Cape Fear for three days, and 
on September 30, with the Fortune and the Francis^ which 
had been taken by Bonnet, and the pirate sloop as prizes, 
sailed for Charles Town, where he arrived on October 3, 
" to the great joy of the whole province." 

Two days later Bonnet and his crew of over thirt}^ men 
were landed and delivered into the custody of Captain 
Nathaniel Partridge, the Provost Marshal of the province. 
There was no prison in the province, — Governor Johnson, 
it will be remembered, had called attention to this want, 
— there was only a watch-house, which stood where the 
old postoffice now stands. All of the pirates but Bonnet 
were placed in this guard-house with a military guard 
posted over them. The authorities agreed to permit 
Bonnet to remain in the custody of the Marshal at the 
latter's residence, two sentinels being placed on guard at 
the Marshal's house every evening at sunset. A few 
days later David Herriot, the sailing-master, and Igna- 
tius Pell, the boatswain, who had agreed to become 
evidence for the Crown, were also removed to the resi- 
dence of the Marshal. 1 

1 Preface to Tryals of Major Steele Bonnet^ etc. (pamphlet). 



CHAPTER XXVII 

1718-19 

Upon the capture of the pirates De Cossey and others 
the year before, Governor Daniel and his Council had pro- 
ceeded under the act of 1712, which had made of force in 
this province the statute of Henry VIII. It appears to 
have been deemed advisable, however, before proceeding 
to the trial of Bonnet and his crew, to revise that act, and 
the Assembly must have been called together for the 
special purpose, for the act adopted the 17th of October, 
1718, was the only one enacted at that time. There are 
no existing journals of this year, however, to show that 
this was positively so. The title of the act indicates that 
it was passed to meet an immediate emergency. Its title 
is ^^An act for the moy^e speedy and Regular Trial of 
Pirates.'^ ^ It provided that a commission, in the name of 
the Palatine and the rest of the true and absolute Lords 
Proprietors of the province, should be directed to the 
judge or judges of admiralty of the province and to such 
other substantial persons as the Governor, with the advice 
and consent of the Council, should appoint, four of whom 
should constitute a quorum, who should have power to 
inquire of piratical offences, and upon the oatlis of twelve 
men to put the offenders upon trial. The act provided 
lists of persons, out of which lists the juries, grand and 
petit, should be drawn. 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 41. 
005 



606 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

On the 2l8t of October Governor Johnson wrote to 
the Commissioners of Trade giving an account of the 
appearance of the pirates, their insolent conduct, and 
Colonel Rhett's successful expedition against them. He 
expressed his apprehensions that the pirates, Avho infested 
the coast in great numbers, would be much irritated at 
this action on the part of the colony, and that its trade 
Avould be much endangered. He asked, therefore, that a 
vessel should be sent for the protection of the commerce 
of the province.^ 

Governor Johnson's apprehensions were immediately 
realized. Before a court could be organized under the act 
just passed, and while Bonnet and his crew were wait- 
ing their trial, news was brought that another noto- 
rious pirate, one Moody, was off the bar with a vessel 
carrying fifty guns and 200 men, and that he had already 
taken two vessels bound from New Enofland to Charles 
Town. The Governor, on the receipt of this intelligence, 
at once convened his Council. He represented to its 
members the danger of invasion and the hopelessness of 
expecting aid from England. No assistance had come in 
reply to his letter of the 18th of June. Notwithstand- 
ing the impoverished condition of the province, by reason 
of the Indian wars, and the former expedition against 
the pirates, another must at once be organized and fitted 
out against these new-comers. The coast of Carolina 
must be cleared for her commerce at her own exj^ense. 
The Council approved Governor Johnson's prompt and 
decisive action and unanimously decided to equip an 
armament of sufficient weight to cope with Moody and 
his fifty guns. 

There were nearly a score of trading vessels in the 
harbor, and to these the Governor turned for aid. The 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 237. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 607 

captains had, however, no authority to volunteer to run 
the vessels belonging to others into so great danger, and 
it was therefore found necessary to press the required 
ships into the public service. Upon an inspection of the 
vessels in port, the Council selected the Mediterranean^ 
Arthur Loan, master ; the King William^ John Watkinson, 
master ; and the Sea Nymph^ Fayrer Hall, master, for the 
perilous expedition. To this fleet was added the Royal 
James^ captured from Stede Bonnet, which was held in 
Charles Town as a prize. She was placed in command 
of Captain John Masters, former master of the Henry^ 
Rhett's flagship in the Cape Fear expedition. Eight 
guns were mounted between her decks, and the old pirate 
craft, says Hughson, was for once in her lifetime fitted 
out for honest work. The Mediterranean was mounted 
with twenty-four guns, the King William with thirty, 
and the Sea Nymph with six. Having secured the neces- 
sary fleet, tlie Council issued a proclamation calling for 
volunteers and promising them all the booty that might 
be taken. 

The fleet and force for the expedition having been thus 
provided, the question arose as to the command of it. 
All eyes were, of course, turned to Rhett, whose naval 
experience and recent success rendered him at once the 
person to whose lead the colonists looked. Richard 
Allein, the Attorney General, in his opening address to 
the jury in the first trial, declared that Colonel William 
Rhett was the chief, if not the first, promoter of the fit- 
ting out of the expedition which had captured Bonnet 
and his party ;i but Rhett, wlio was of uncertain and 
fiery temper, had quarrelled with Johnson in consequence 
of some action of the Governor in connection with that 
expedition, and he now held back. Governor Johnson 

1 Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet^ etc., 9. 



608 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

determined, therefore, to take command himself of this 
enterprise and to lead the fleet against the pirates in 
person at the earliest pos'sible moment. This course 
of the Governor infused confidence, and in a few days 
300 volunteers were on board the vessels awaiting orders 
to sail. But a serious delay was still to be met. The 
masters of the impressed vessels made no objection to 
giving their personal services to the colony, but their 
owners were to be considered, and they now entered a 
formal protest, strongly representing that some security 
should be given by the government to indemnify them 
for injury or capture of their vessels by the pirates. 
Hughson states that Governor Johnson recognized the 
justice of their plea and immediately convened an extra 
session of the Assembly and laid the case before it, and 
that the Assembly without delay voted a bill to secure 
the ship-owners against all losses and expenses.^ No 
such act can, however, be found ; and as the journals of 
the Assembly for this year are missing, no record of it 
has been preserved. However settled, these proceedings 
delayed the expedition for about a week ; but in the 
meantime scout-boats had been stationed along the shore 
of the islands, at the entrance of the harbor, to resist any 
attempt on the part of the enemy to land, and at the same 
time an embargo was laid on all shipping. 

While the Governor was thus busily engaged endeavor- 
ing to organize this expedition, the captured pirates, it 
appears, had found some friends in the town who had 
created disturbances under cover of which to effect their 
release, and that Bonnet and Herriot had actually escaped. ^ 

1 Hughson, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, V, VI, VII, 115. 

2 Mr, Thomas Hepworth, who assisted the Attorney General in the 
prosecution, refers to such disturbances ; but, save this passing remark, 
there is no other allusion in the accounts of the times to any such trouble. 
Tryals of Major Steele Bonnet, 11 ; State Trials, vol. XIV, 1248. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 609 

Ramsay states that Bonnet escaped in the disguise of a 
woman's clothing, ^ which would have been no matter of 
surprise considering the looseness of his confinement. 
Pell, the boatswain, refused to fly with Bonnet and 
Herriot. The escape was made on the 25th of October. 

Governor Johnson immediately issued a proclamation 
offering a reward of <£700 for the capture of the fugitive, 
sent "hue and cry" and expresses by land and Avater 
throughout the whole province, and dispatched several 
boats with armed men in pursuit. Bonnet, it appears, 
had effected his escape in a canoe with an Indian and a 
negro. In this small craft he put to sea, in the hope, 
probably, of joining Moody's vessel, of the presence of 
which off the bar he was no doubt informed, or of reach- 
ing again the Oape Fear ; but it happened that on that 
day the pirate vessel supposed to have been Moody's was 
far away — indeed, it was off Cape Henry, engaged in the 
capture of the ship Eagle Galley P' Bonnet was entirely 
without provisions, the weather was tempestuous, and he 
was forced to return to Sullivan's Island. There he hid 
for some days. 

In the meanwhile, amidst the excitement and confusion 
of Bonnet's escape, and of the preparation of the expedi- 
tion against the other pirates on the coast, the court 
which had been provided for by the act of the 18th of 
October met and organized on the 28th ; and while the 
Governor was getting ready to put to sea against Moody, 
as he supposed, the court proceeded to the trial of the rest 
of Bonnet's crew. Nicholas Trott, Judge of Vice Ad- 
miralty and Chief Justice of the province, presided, with 
George Logan, Alexander Parris, Philip Dawes, George 
Chicken, Benjamin de La Conseillere, Samuel Dean, Ed- 

1 Hist, of So. Ca., 204, note. 

2 So. Ca. Achn. Ct. Bee. Book, A and B. 
2r 



610 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ward Brailsford, John Croft, Captain Arthur Loan, and 
Captain John Watkins as assistant judges. The grand 
jury was formed, with Michael Brewton foreman. 

Judge Trott proceeded to charge the grand jury upon 
the subject of piracy. His charge was a most learned 
one, exhibiting extensive erudition, quoting from many 
authors in Latin and Greek, and, though it would be re- 
garded to-day as pedantic, was a most able exposition of 
the law of the case. He first traced the history of the 
constitution and jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty 
from the earliest time, and explained the design and effect 
of the act 28 Henry VIII, whereby pirates were thereafter 
to be tried according to the course of the common law, 
and defined and expounded the law of piracy, as modified 
by that statute, adopted in the province in 1712, under 
which the accused were to be tried. ^ An indictment was 
given out against Stede Bonnet and several others of his 
company, and the court adjourned. The next day other 
indictments were given out, and true bills found. On the 
30th a petit jury was organized, and the case proceeded ; 
in the absence of Bonnet, Robert Tucker and others were 
brought to the bar and put upon their trial. Richard 
Allein, the Attorney General, rehearsed the recent deeds 
of the pirates. He was sorry, he said, to hear some ex- 
pressions drop from private persons (he hoped there were 
none of them upon the jury) in favor of the pirates, and 
particularly of Bonnet ; " that he is a gentleman and a man 
of honor, a man of fortune, and one that has had a liberal 
education. Alas, Gentlemen," he said, '' all these quali- 

1 This charge is quoted at some length by a learned writer, Phillimore, 
of the College of Advocates, in his Commentaries upon International Laiv, 
as correctly defining the law of piracy ; and a list of the authorities cited 
by Trott is given in a note to his work. Philliui ore's International 
Law, CCCLVI. Law Library ed., 286. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 611 

fications are but several aggravations of his crimes," etc. 
He had in his hand, he stated, an account of above thirty- 
eight vessels taken by Bonnet, in company with Thatch, 
in the West Indies since the 5th of April before. The 
Attorney General Avas followed by Mr. Thomas Hepworth, 
to whose address to the jury reference has already been 
made. Then Ignatius Pell, who had refused to fly with 
Bonnet and had turned State's evidence, was put on the 
stand, and upon his testimony, and that of the captains of 
the vessels that had been captured by Bonnet, Tucker and 
four others were found guilty. The court proceeded from 
day to day with the trial of others. The conviction of 
seventeen others rapidly followed ; four were acquitted. 

The accused had no counsel ; but it is a mistake to 
suppose, as has been asserted, that this was because of the 
provision of the Fundamental Constitutions declaring it 
" a base and vile thing to plead for money or reward," and 
that hence the members of the bar of the colony were 
unwilling to undertake the cause of the accused, for which 
they could receive no remuneration. ^ That provision was 
never of any more force in the colony than any other of 
that extraordinary body of laws. The simpler explana- 
tion of the absence of counsel is that under the law of 
England then, and for more than a century after, crimi- 
nals were not allowed counsel in any case except of trea- 
son. It was not until 1836, as we have already said, that 
counsel was so allowed in England. Piracy, it is true, 
Avas held to be in the nature of treason ; but these pirates 
were indicted for felony under the statute of Henry VIII, 
and so were not entitled to counsel under the exception 
in regard to trials for treason. 

Governor Johnson was nearly ready to embark with his 
fleet when information was brought him that Bonnet was 

1 Hughson, Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies, 2 sorieB, V, VI, VII, 105. 



Gl2 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

hiding on Sullivan's Island, and though Colonel Rhett 
would not take part in the expedition against the pirates 
at sea, he readily accepted a commission to effect the 
recapture of Bonnet. The Governor sailed with the 
fleet on the 4th of November, and Rhett went that night 
to Sullivan's Island. He searched diligently for a long 
time in the sand hills among the dense myrtle and cedar, 
which afforded so many hiding-places, before he found the 
fugitives. But at the last he did so, when some of his 
party fired. Herriot fell dead ; the negro and the Indian 
were wounded. Bonnet submitted and surrendered him- 
self, and the next morning, being the 6th of November, 
Colonel Rhett brought him to the town. 

Several days before the Governor's fleet was ready for 
sea, the boats off Sullivan's Island sighted a ship and a 
sloop Avhich, coming up to the bar, dropped anclior and 
attempted to land. They were prevented by the guards, 
however, who made a hostile demonstration on their ap- 
proach, and for three days the two strange craft lay 
quietly at their moorings, making no movement calcu- 
lated to arouse further suspicions. 

Late on the evening of November 4, the Governor's 
fleet sailed down the harbor and anchored several hun- 
dred yards below Fort Johnson, which commanded the 
main entrance to the port. Orders had been issued for 
every movement to be made with the least demonstration 
possible, and the vessels reached their anchorage without 
being detected by the pirates, who had again returned to 
the mouth of the harbor. The Governor's fleet lay quiet 
all night, and as the gray mist of early morning crept 
slowly over the ocean, Governor Johnson, from the deck 
of his flagship, the Mediterranean, signalled his consorts 
to weigh anchor and follow him. The commander of 
each vessel liad been carefully instructed before the fleet 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 613 

had left the town. No warlike display was to be made 
until the final moment ; and the four vessels now steered 
in the direction of the pirate fleet with the guns all under 
cover, and the men below decks. By eight o'clock they 
were close to the enemy. The deception was complete. 
Mistaking them for merchantmen, the pirate ship promptly 
weighed anchor, and stood on toward the mouth of the 
harbor to intercept the retreat which they were certain 
would be attempted. Having placed themselves between 
the South Carolinians and the harbor, they now lioisted 
the black flag, and called on the King William to sur- 
render. At this moment Johnson ran the King's colors 
to the masthead of the Mediterranean^ threw open his 
ports, and delivered a broadside which swept the decks 
of the nearest vessel with murderous effect. Before the 
pirates had recovered from the consternation into which 
they were thrown by this action, the South Carolinians 
bore down upon them and began the battle in desperate 
earnest, and at the closest possible quarters. The hatches 
were thrown open, the men rushed from below tlie decks 
heavily armed, while the sixty-eight guns of the combined 
• fleet poured broadside after broadside into the pirates, who 
were now hemmed in between the shore and Governor 
Johnson's vessels. By skilful management, however, the 
pirate ship escaped from her precarious position, and made 
all sail possible in order to elude the desperate chase of 
the South Carolinians. Johnson signalled the jSea Nymph 
and the Royal James^ or the Revenge^ as she was now called, 
to look to the sh)op, while he, in company with the Ki^ig 
William^ made hot pursuit after the sliip, which seemed to 
have every chance of escape. 

The pirate sloop, which carried six guns and forty men, 
unable to reach the open sea, was now vigorously attacked 
by Hall and Masters. The pirates defended themselves 



614 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

with a valor worthy of a better cause, and for four hours, 
with the vessels almost yard-arm to yard-arm, they main- 
tained a struggle as fierce as any ever known in these 
waters which have so often been stirred by hostile forces. 
Finally they were forced to abandon their guns, and many 
sought shelter in the hold from the terrible fire which was 
sweeping the vessel from stem to stern. A few moments 
later the South Carolinians boarded her, despite the des- 
perate resistance made by the captain and the men who 
remained to meet them. Reaching the decks, the attack- 
ing party made quick work of the pirates, although the 
latter defended themselves Avith the desperation of men 
who realized that they had but one chance left to them 
for life. In a short time every man above decks, includ- 
ing the chief, who fought to the death with the fury of a 
lion, was either killed or disabled, and the boarding party 
found itself in undisputed possession of the vessel. The 
men who had fled into the hold surrendered without 
another blow, and a few hours later the sloop, with her 
surviving crew in irons, was carried into Charles Town 
in triumph. Tlie struggle, says Hughson, which took 
place almost within sight of the town, created the most 
tremendous excitement among the inhabitants, which 
arose to a pitch of almost indescribable exultation as 
the throng along the Avharves saw the Sea Nymph and 
the Bevenge rounding the harbor, the royal ensign at the 
masthead signalling their victory. 

Governor Johnson, while not forced to such desperate 
figliting as his subordinates of the Revenge and the Sea 
Nymph^ had a long, hard chase after the fleeing ship, and 
did not come up with her until the middle of the after- 
noon. During the pursuit the pirate abandoned the 
defence and bent every energy to effect his escape. He 
lightened the ship in every possible way, and even threw 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT (315 

over the guns and the boats, but all to no avail. The 
South Carolinians had the fastest sailers, and as soon as 
they came within range Governor Johnson ordered the 
King William to open fire. The first discharge raked 
the sloop, killing two of the crew, and "having received 
a shot between wind and water," the pirates hauled down 
the black flag and made an unconditional surrender. 

When the hatches were opened, to the great surprise 
of the captors, it was discovered that the hold of the ship 
was crowded with women ; and upon investigation the 
vessel proved to be the Eagle^ bound from London to 
Virginia and Maryla.nd with 106 convicts and "covenant 
servants," — whom it was designed to settle in those colo- 
nies, — thirty-six of whom were women. The Eagle had 
been captured by the pirate sloop, which was known as 
the New York Revenge^ near Cape Henry, and converted 
into a tender. Six guns had been placed in her, and her 
name Avas changed to the New York Revenge^ and John 
Cole had been given the command. A large number of 
the crew and of the convicts allied themselves to the 
pirates, while those who refused to join them were held 
as prisoners. 

A still more serious surprise, continues the author from 
whom this account of the expedition is taken, awaited the 
Governor, however, on his return to Charles ToAvn to look 
after the issue of the conflict between the sloop and the 
rest of his fleet. It was ascertained that the captured 
vessels did not belong to Moody at all, nor did tlie cap- 
tive crews have any connection whatever with him. The 
commander, Avho had been killed on board the sloop, 
proved to be another still more famous pirate, one Richard 
Worley, who had terrorized the coast in the vicinity of 
New York and Philadelphia but a few weeks previous. 
Governor Johnson was naturally much gratified at having 



616 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

exterminated so dangerous a company of villains, but the 
question as to the whereabouts of Moody was still one of 
vital interest to the colony. The statements of the pris- 
oners were certainly not above suspicion, and no one 
could say positively that Worley's crew was not a part of 
Moody's company. It was altogether possible, if not 
probable, that Moody was hovering within the headlands 
of one of the neighboring harbors, and Avould, if in his 
power, wreak a cruel revenge on the colony for the capt- 
ure and slaughter of his comrades. 

To guard against the possibility of a sudden descent 
on the port, Johnson determined to maintain his fleet in 
a state of thorough organization until he was satisfied 
that all danger was past. A few days afterwards the 
public anxiety was relieved by the arrival of the Minerva^ 
Captain Smyter, from the Madeira Isles, Avho reported 
that he had been taken off the bar by Moody, who, about 
the same time, received information of the preparations 
which were being made in Charles Town to capture him. 
He had accordingly taken the Minerva about a hundred 
leagues out to sea, where he had plundered her, after 
Avhich he set sail for New Providence, in order to avail 
himself of the King's proclamation, which had been 
brought out by Governor Woodes Rogers. 

It was a time of the greatest excitement. Stirring and 
startling events followed each other in rapid succession. 
Governor Johnson had sailed with his fleet on the evening 
of the 4th of November. The next day, the 5th, while the 
Governor was engaged in battle off the bar with Worley, 
Rhett had recaptured Bonnet on Sullivan's Island, while, 
on the same day, the trial of Bonnet's crew was brouglit 
to a close, and twenty-two of them sentenced to deatli. 
Bonnet was brought to town on the 6th. Two days after, 
the 8th, the twenty-two convicted were executed, and, on 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 617 

the 10th, Bonnet himself was arraigned on two indict- 
ments. One of them charged him with piracy in taking 
the sloop Francis^ Captain Manwaering, and the other with 
piracy in taking the sloop Fortune, Captain Read.^ 

Mr. Hepworth opened the case for the prosecution, and 
Ignatius Pell, Bonnet's boatswain, was put on the stand. 
Pell appears to have had some affection for Bonnet, and 
to have testified reluctantly against liis master ; but, as 
his own life was at stake, he could not shield him. By 
the theory of the English law, counsel was not necessary 
for the defence, as it was the duty of the judge to see 
tliat the accused had a fair trial, and to take care of his 
interests ; but that was but a poor protection under such 
a judge as Trott, whose tyrannical conduct on the bench 
Avas one of the causes of the fast approaching overthrow 
of the Proprietors. 

There could be no doubt of Bonnet's guilt, but his 
calm and dignified bearing at the trial elicits, even at this 
day, some sympathy for him, and provokes resentment 
against Trott's overbearing conduct. The Chief Justice 
availed himself of the practice of the times to interrogate 
the accused as well as the witnesses, and thus to expose 
the v/eak points in his case.^ Bonnet met the judge's 
interrogations with self-possession, and, when he could 
not offer an explanation, was silent. His defence was 
that he had honestly intended to proceed to St. Thomas, 
but had been overpowered by his crew and forced to con- 
tinue in his piratical course. The plea was a weak one, 
and easily disposed of by the judge ; but, not content to 
do so, Trott did not hesitate to bring into Bonnet's case 

1 Tryals of 3Iajor Stede Bonnet, 37. 

2 This practice was abolished, and prisoners exempted from interroga- 
tion by the judge, at the same time as they were allowed counsel on their 
trial. — Encyclopedia BrUannica, "Criminal Law," Edmund Robertson. 



618 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the testimony taken in the former trials, at which Bonnet 
had not been present, and upon such inadmissible testi- 
mony to declare the charges proved against him. He 
was convicted on the first indictment that day. Upon his 
arraignment the next, on the second indictment, he with- 
drew his plea of not guilty. On the third day, the 12th, 
he was sentenced to death. 

In sentencing Bonnet, Trott delivered one of his re- 
markable charges abounding with quotations from the 
Scriptures, with which this remarkable man showed him- 
self as familiar as he was with the civil and common 
law. 

"You being a Gentleman that have had the advantage of liberal 
educatio7i and being generally esteemed a man of Letters I believe it 
will be needless for me to explain to you the nature of Repentance and 
Faith in Christ they being so fully and so often explained in the 
Scriptures that you cannot but know them. And therefore perhaps 
for that reason it might be thought by some improper for me to have 
said so much to you as I have already upon this occasion ; neither 
should I have done it, but that considering the course of your life and 
actions, I have just reason to fear that the Principles of Religion that 
had been instilled into you by your Education have been at least cor- 
rupted if not entirely defaced by the Sceptism and Infidelity of this 
wicked age ; and that what Time you allowed for Study was rather 
applied to Polite Literature; and the vain Philosophy of the Times 
than to a serious Search after the Law and Will of God, as revealed 
to us in the Holy Scriptures. For had your Delight been in the Law of 
the Lord, and that you had meditated therein Day and Night Psal 1-2 
you would then have found that Gods Woj'd ?cas a Lamp unto your 
Feet, and a Light to your Path Psal: 119-105, and that you would 
account all other knowledge but Loss in comparison of the Excellency 
of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus Vhil 3-8 7vho to them that are called is 
the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Cor: 1. 24. even as the hid- 
den Wisdom which God ordained before the World. Chap : 2-7." ^ 

And more, much more, to the same effect. 

1 Tryals of Major Stede Bonnet^ 44 ; Howell's State Trials, vol. XV, 
1234-1302. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 619 

Bonnet had, under the circumstances, borne up bravely 
enough durmg his trial ; but upon his sentence his courage 
and resolution failed, and the most abject and pusillani- 
mous appeals for mercy were made by him both to the 
Governor and to Colonel Rhett, his captor. To Colonel 
Rhett he wrote, imploring his intercession, insisting 
before " God, the knower of all secrets," that he was 
himself but a prisoner when he lay with Thatch off 
Charles Town bar ; that he had been coerced in his 
course ; that he had hailed with joy his capture by 
Rhett, as affording him an opportunity of disengaging 
himself from the wicked people with whom he had been 
associated.^ To Governor Johnson he addressed the most 
piteous and extraordinary appeal. Throwing himself at 
the Governor's feet, he implored him " to look upon him 
with tender bowells of pity and compassion," and to 
believe him the most miserable man that day breathing. 
'' That the tears proceeding from my most sorrowful soul 
may soften your heart and incline you to consider my 
dismal state wholly, I must confess, unprepared to receive 
so soon the dreadful execution you have been pleased to 
appoint me ; and therefore beseech you to think me an 
object of your mercy." In his abject misery he begged 
for life, for life only, on any terms. 

" I heartily beseech you'll permit me to live," he wrote to the Gov- 
ernor, "and I'll voluntarily put it ever out of my Power by separating 
all my Limbs from my Body, only reserving the use of my Tongue to 
call continually on, and pray to the Lord, my God and mourn all my 
Days in Sackcloth and Ashes to work out Confident hopes of my Sal- 
vation, at that great and dreadful Day when all righteous Souls shall 
receive their just rewards. And to render your Honour a further 
Assurance of my being incapable to prejudice any of my Fellow Chris- 
tians, if I was so wickedly bent I humbly l)eg you will (as a Punish- 
ment of my Sins for my poor Soul's Sake) indent me as a menial Ser- 

1 Letter in note, Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 204. 



620 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

vant to your Honour, and this Government during my Life, and send 
me up to the fartherest inland Garrison or Settlement in the Country 
or in any other ways you'll be pleased to dispose of me." 

Like Trott, he showed himself familiar with Holy Writ, 
and concluded his appeal in the words of Paul the Apostle 
to the Hebrews. 

"Now the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our 
Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the Sheep, thro' the Blood of the 
everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good Work to do his 
Will, working in you, that which is well pleasing in his Siglit through 
Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever is the hearty Prayer of 
" Your Honour's Most miserable and Afflicted servant 

"Stede Bonnet." 1 

It was indeed a remarkable incident, that of the famil- 
iarity thus shown with the sacred Scriptures on the part 
alike of a corrupt judge and of a bloody pirate. Despite 
the desperate character of the culprit, so pitiful was his 
behavior that the sympathies of the public were greatly 
aroused in his behalf, and much j)ressure was brought to 
bear on Governor Johnson to induce him to grant either 
a pardon or a commutation of his sentence. Bonnet him- 
self was desirous of being carried to England, so as to 
have his case brought directly to the attention of the King. 
His appeal to Colonel Rhett so excited that gentleman's 
interest in his behalf, that he is said to have offered to 
carry him, and ample security was also tendered for his 
safe delivery to the home authorities. But Governor 
Johnson knew what the province had suffered at the 
hands of the pirates, and he would listen to no proposi- 
tion, nor parley Avith them or their friends. He had no 
sympathy with the movement to procure a stay of Bon- 
net's execution, and was unswerving in his determination 
that he should die in accordance with the sentence of the 

1 Hughson, Johns Hupkins Univ. Studies, 2 series, V, VI, VII, 110. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 621 

court. It remained with the Governor to fix the day of 
the execution. He appointed Wednesday, the 10th of 
December, as the fatal day, and Bonnet was accordingly 
executed. It is said that he was so unnerved "that he 
was scarce sensible when he came to the place of exe- 
cution." ^ 

In the meanwhile the court was again convened, and 
twenty-three of those captured by Governor Johnson's 
expedition w^ere also convicted, and on the 24th of 
November were sentenced to death. They were exe- 
cuted, but the day upon which their execution took 
place is not certainly known. 

The nest of pirates which had been established in 
Cape Fear was now thoroughly broken up. Thatch, or 
" Black Beard," had been killed and his crew captured 
by the expedition fitted out by Governor Spotswood of 
Virginia ; Bonnet had been captured by Rhett and exe- 
cuted ; and Worley had been slain in the battle with 
Governor Johnson. Without disparagement to the con- 
duct of Governor Spotswood, it may be pointed out that 
however prompt and vigorous his action, the expedition 
which he sent had the advantage of being commanded by 
officers of the Royal Navy, whereas those of Governor 
Johnson were led by Colonel Rhett and himself in person. 
The South Carolinians had arisen against the pirates as 
they had done against the Indians, and, without waiting 
for the help they had asked, had themselves without 
assistance organized and conducted two brilliant and suc- 
cessful expeditions. They had so far been victorious, and 
opened the harbor of Charles Town to their commerce. 
But the danger was by no means past. The sea was yet 
covered with pirate craft, manned by as desperate outlaws 
as any of those who had paid tlie penalty of their crimes 

1 Hugiison, supra. 



622 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

at While Point. Every month brought intelligence of 
renewed outrages, of vessels sacked on the high seas, 
burned with their cargo, or seized and converted to the 
nefarious uses of the outlaws. 

Governor Johnson, says Hughson, was no dreamer, and 
he did not lull himself into any fancied security because 
of the success of the plots of the daring Rhett and him- 
self. The province itself was scarcely able to do any- 
thing more. The cost of the two naval expeditions had 
further exhausted the already depleted treasury, and as 
yet the English authorities had given no indication of 
their intention to do anything to assist their hard-pressed 
fellow-countrymen in the distant colony. 

But Governor Johnson did not despair, though he did 
not encourage the thought of expecting any assistance 
from abroad. On the contrary, he insisted that the people 
should help themselves ; and in February, 1719, the As- 
sembly passed an act providing sufficient funds to pay the 
debts incurred by the equipment of the two expeditions. 
In the meantime the Governor had forwarded another 
letter to the Lords of Trade, in which he gave a full 
account of the recent occurrences, narrating how his fears 
had been realized, and urging that a ship of war should 
be sent to South Carolina immediately, unless their Lord- 
ships were willing to see tlie trade completely ruined. 
In this communication the Governor expressed himself 
with great earnestness, claiming for the colony some con- 
sideration at the hands of the board, and reminding it 
that during the previous year the province had supplied, 
for the use of his Majesty's navy, 32,000 barrels of tar, 
20,643 barrels of pitch, and 473 barrels of turpentine. In 
a letter written the following December, after he had 
been deposed by the people in consequence of the neglect 
and tyranny of the Proprietors, he writes to them that 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 623 

"he is out of pocket £1000 sterling," by reason of the 
extraordinary expenses he was at in suppressing the 
pirates.^ 

Governor Johnson's appeals brought at last, on April 
29, 1719, the information that the Lords of Admiralty 
had consented to send a frigate " as soon as possible " ; 
and some months after, the man-of-war Flamhourgh^ 
Captain Hildesly, arrived and was placed on duty in the 
harbor, while the Phoenix^ Captain Pierce, was sent to 
cruise along the coast, keeping a lookout for any free- 
booters who might venture to depredate on the commerce 
of the colonies. 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 236-239. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

1719 

The year 1719, so memorable in the annals of Carolina 
for the overthrow of the Proprietors' Government, opened 
most auspiciously to the interest of their Lordships. Gov- 
ernor Johnson's heroic and efficient conduct in regard to 
the pirates had greatly propitiated the people of the col- 
ony. The Assembly forgave the lecture he had read them 
upon his arrival upon their conduct and duties to the 
Proprietors, and forgot the controversy in regard to the 
Public Receiver. Putting aside all matters of difference, 
they entered into the most cordial relations with the 
Governor. They passed an act declaring the willingness 
of the people of tlie province to consent to any reasonable 
measure whereby their Lordships might have justice done 
them with respect to their rents ; and " for promoting so 
good and just a design and that the Lords Proprietors 
seeing the inclination of the inhabitants of this province 
to do them justice, and duly to pay them their rents, may 
assist this province, and use their interest to support the 
same and to promote the good thereof, and that all differ- 
ences and misunderstandings between their Lordsliips and 
the people may be removed," etc. They agreed that all 
arrears of rents, and all that should thereafter become 
due, should be paid either in lawful money according 
to the statute of the 6th of Queen Anne, which, at that 
time, would have required £4 in currency to <£1 in good 

money, or else in good merchantable rice at the rate of 

624 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVEIlN^rENT 625 

17s. 6d. per 100, or good pitch at the rate of 15s. per 
barrel, or tar at the rate of 7s. 6d. per barrel. This was 
a compliance with their Lordships' demand as stated by 
the Governor in his opening speech to the Commons the 
year before. They provided also for the enforcement and 
collection of the rents. The act went on to say that see- 
ing, by an order of the Board of the Lords Proprietors of 
the 3d of May, 1716, their Lordships had been pleased 
to give all their arrears that were then in Carolina due 
to them, whether for land sold, or for rent that should 
become due on the 1st of May, 1718, to the use of the 
public as the Governor and Council should think most 
proper to appropriate the same ; but, by reason of some 
misunderstanding between the Lords Proprietors and the 
people, their Lordships were pleased to withdraw their 
intended gift ; but seeing, also, that the inhabitants of the 
province, by their representative in the Assembly, had 
showed their willingness to do their Lordships justice with 
respect to their rents, which made them hope that all 
differences would be entirely forgotten, they proceeded to 
appropriate the arrears of rent to the building of a state 
house and prison. To this act the Governor and the 
other Proprietors' deputies consented, without further 
consulting their Lordships.^ 

The next business of the General Assembly was to re- 
vise again the election law, and to make another appor- 
tionment of representation, the number of which they 
increased from thirty to thirty-six, as follows : St. Philip's 
parish was allowed five members instead of four ; Christ 
Church two ; St. John's three. A part of St. Andrew's 
had been cut off and made into a new parish, St. George's, 
so St. Andrew's lost one member, but St. George's was 
given two, a gain of one to the old parish. St. James, 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 44-49. 



626 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Goose Creek, Avas also given an additional member, mak- 
ing its representation four members ; St. Thomas and 
St. Dennis three ; St. Paul's four. An additional member 
was given respectively to St. Bartholomew and St. Helena, 
making three representatives from each. Winyaw was 
added to St. James, Santee, and the two were allowed 
together two members. ^ The Assembly laid duties on 
negroes, liquors, and other goods and merchandise im- 
ported to and exported out of the province, for raising a 
fund towards defraying the public charges and expenses of 
the government ; 2 and passed an act for raising X 70, 000 
on lands and negroes, for defraying the public debt, sink- 
ing the public orders, and calling in and cancelling the 
sum of X 30,000 outstanding on bills of credit over and 
beside the bank bills. ^ A commission was provided to 
regulate the Indian trade ; the commissioners appointed 
were Colonel Thomas Broughton, Colonel George Logan, 
and Ralph Izard, Esq.^ These acts were all ratified on the 
20th of March, 1718-19, and were the last attempted 
legislation under the Proprietary Government. 

It was while the General Assembly was thus engaged in 
providing for the sinking of the paper currency and in con- 
triving to pay for their expedition against the pirates and 
their other contingent debts, and while it was said '' they 
were never observ'd to be in so good a disposition towards 
the Proprietors, but were doing everything that could be 
asked of them," that an order to the Governor came to 
dissolve the Assembly forthwith and to call a new one, 
to be elected according to the ancient custom.^ 

This order, under the great seal of the province, was 
dated the 18th of July before (1718). It was signed by 
Carteret, Palatine, James Bertie for the minor Duke of 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 50-55. 2 ji^ia,^ 55. 3 n^ia.^ 69. 

4 Ibid., 80. ^ Proceedings of the People of So. Ca. (Carroll), vol. 1, 150. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 627 

Beaufort, Fulwar Skipwith for the minors Lord Craven, 
Maurice Ashley, John Colleton, and John Danson. Two 
shares were unrepresented, and two belonging to minors 
were represented by their guardians, who were thus inci- 
dentally exercising governmental powers.^ 

The first clause of this imperious decree stated that his 
Majesty had been pleased, by his order in council, to sig- 
nify his Royal pleasure that the Lords Proprietors should 
forthwith repeal the act of the province whereby a duty 
of ten per cent was laid upon goods of British manufact- 
ure imported into the province ; and that in obedience to 
his Majesty's command their Lordships declared the same 
repealed. Against this Royal mandate, whether constitu- 
tional or not, it was vain to protest, and the colonists 
accepted the repeal with submission. 

But it was another matter altogether when, in the same 
instrument, the Proprietors proceeded to repeal other 
measures to which their representatives, the Governor, 
and the other members of the Council, deputies of the 
Proprietors, had solemnly assented and ratified. True, 
the Proprietors had always claimed the right, sitting as 
a Palatine Court in England, to negative the proceedings 
of the Assembly in Carolina ; but the colonists, aware of 
the growing weakness of their Lordships' hold upon the 
charter at home, and more and more restless under the 
feeble and yet tyrannical rule of an irresponsible and 
indifferent body, were not now disposed to submit to 
such unjust dealings without a closer scrutiny into their 
right to enforce them. 

The next measure to which their Lordships' order 
referred was that vexed one of the nomination of the 
Public Receiver. Finding, they said, this act to be 
inconsistent with the safety, welfare, and good govern- 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 30. 



628 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ment of the province, and inconsistent with the usage and 
custom of Great Britain, they declared the act giving the 
nomination of the Public Receiver to the House of Com- 
mons to be null and void. How there could have been a 
custom or usage upon this subject in Great Britain, it is 
difficult to conceive. Of course there was none. The 
question raised in 1707 in regard to this matter was one 
not free from fair doubt ; but the Proprietors had acqui- 
esced now for ten years in the assertion of the right of 
nomination by the Commons, and it was most unwise and 
impolitic to agitate the matter again at this time when 
their charter was so seriously threatened at home, espe- 
cially as the colonists were just now disposed to renew 
their loyalty to their Lordships. 

But the repeal of the act in regard to the election of 
the Receiver did not touch the people so sensitively as 
the order for the repeal of the law in regard to election. 
" We have likewise," said their Lordships, " read and con- 
sidered two acts of assembly, the one entitled an act to 
keep inviolate and preserve the freedom of elections," 
etc. : "the other entitled an additional and explanatory act 
to the forgoing act, and finding the said two acts tend to 
the entire alteration and subversion of the constitution of 
the Province of South Carolina and are contrary to the 
laws and customs of Parliament in Great Britain we there- 
fore do declare the said two last mentioned Acts to be null 
and void and we do hereby repeal nullifie and make void 
the said two acts and ever}^ clause matter or thing therein 
contained whatsoever. " ^ 

Nor Avas this all. The Yamassee lands, which liad 
been recovered upon the expulsion of those Indians, had 
been appropriated, by the Proprietors' permission,^ to 

1 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. Ill, 31. 

^Ante; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 164. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 629 

new-comers, in order to build up a more settled country 
between the Indians and the rest of the province. An act 
had been passed for the purpose, and under its provisions 
several hundred immigrants from Ireland had come out 
with the promise of 200 acres to each settler, at an 
expense of thousands of pounds expended by the colony 
to fetch them here.^ This act was also repealed. " We 
have read also," wrote the Proprietors, ''two other acts 
of the Assembly the titles of which are an act to appro- 
priate the Yamassee lands to the use of such persons as 
shall come into and settle themselves in this Province 
etc : and an act to grant several privileges exemptions 
and encouragements to such of his Majesty's Protestant 
subjects as are desirous to come into and settle in this 
province — which two Acts being an encroachment upon 
the property of us the Lords Proprietors and tend only 
to the disposal of our estates to which the Assembly 
can pretend no manner of right, we therefore do declare 
the said two Acts to be null and void," etc. 

The Indian Trade act they also repealed, because it was 
said several merchants in London had complained of it as 
a monopoly. 

The communication announcing these repeals was re- 
ceived with the utmost astonishment and consternation 
by the Governor and Council, who had assented to these 
measures, supposing themselves to possess the confidence 
of the Proprietors ^— chosen, as they had so recently been, 
as their Lordships' deputies. There was one member of 
the Council, however, who did not share in the surprise, 
and who looked on, doubtless, with amusement and satis- 
faction at the alarm and embarrassment of his fellow- 
councillors, and that was Mr. Chief Justice Trott. It 
does not appear to have been known in the province that 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 294. 



630 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Trott was carrying on a regular correspondence with 
Mr. Shelton, the secretary of the Board of Proprietors, 
with the knowledge and approval of their Lordships 
themselves ; but it was suspected that he was in private 
communication with them, and that this extraordinary 
action on their part had been brought about by Rhett 
and himself, "with whom," as it was said, "they had 
always too much influence either for their Lordships' or 
the people's good." i Trott and Rhett had exercised great 
political influence when the elections were all held at 
Charles Town, and they had opposed and obstructed the 
passage of the new election law, as it removed the elec- 
tions from their control. This they resented and, it was 
correctly surmised, had communicated with the Proprietors 
uj^on the subject. 

There were other and still stronger grounds of opposi- 
tion to Trott. Though doubtless a man of great ability 
and learning, one to whom, as it has been seen, South 
Carolina is to this day indebted in a great measure for 
her system of laws, he was both corrupt and tyrannical 
as a judge. Richard Allein, the Attorney General, who 
had been the prosecuting officer in the recent trials of 
the pirates, and other practitioners of the law, charged 
him with many base and iniquitous practices. 2 

Just before the arrival of these unlooked-for orders 
there had been presented to the Assembly articles of com- 
plaint against the Chief Justice, thirty-one in number,^ 
setting forth, " That he had been guilty of many Partial 

1 Proceedings of the People (Carroll), vol. II, 149. 

2 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 241. 

.3 There are no Journals of the Commons from 1718 to 1720. Probably 
they were lost in the revolution which took place in 1719. The account 
in the text follows, therefore, Yonge's Narrative of the Proceedings of the 
People of So. Ca. in the year 1719. London, MDCCXXVI ; republished 
in Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 141. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 



631 



Judgments ; that he had contriv'd many Ways to multiply 
and increase his Fees contrary to Acts of Assembly, and to 
the great Grievance to the Subjects, and that among others 
he had contriv'd a Fee for continuing Causes from one 
Court (or Term) unto another, and then he put off the 
Hearing for several Years together ; that he took upon 
him to\ive Advice in Causes depending in his Courts, 
and did'' not only act as a Counsellor in that particular, 
but also had, and did draw Deeds, and other Writings 
between Party and Party, some of which had been con- 
tested before him as Chief Justice : in the determining of 
which he had shewn great Partialities with many other 
Particulars ; and lastly complaining that the whole Judi- 
cial Power of the Province was lodgVl m his Hands alone, 
of which it was evident he had made a very ill Use ; he 
being at that time sole judge of the Pleas and Kings 
Bench and Judge of Vice Admiralty; so that no Prohibi- 
tion could be lodg'd against the Proceedings of that 
Court, he being in that Case to grant a Prohibition 
against himself ; he was also at the same time one of 
the Council and of consequence, of the court of Chancery. 

These complaints of the attorneys who practised m the 
courts were fully substantiated to the Commons ; but 
Trott refused to recognize the authority of that body to 
act in the matter. He insisted that he was amenable 
only to the Proprietors themselves, from whom he had 
received his commissions, and could be impeached before 
no other body. The Commons thereupon sent a message 
to the Governor and Council desirhig that they would 
join in a representation to their Lordships of Trott's mal- 
administration of his offices, and to supplicate them that 
if they did not think fit to remove him entirely from pre- 
siding in their courts of justice (as the Commons desired), 
that they would at least restrict him to one single juris- 



632 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

diction, that they might have liberty of appealing from 
his sole and too often partial judgments. The Governor 
and a majority of his Council agreed with the Commons 
to represent the grievances they complained of to the 
Proprietors. 

It was at this juncture that the orders repealing the acts 
mentioned, and requiring the Governor to dissolve the 
Assembly, arrived. This the Governor and Council con- 
sidered impracticable and dangerous at the time. The 
Commons had just passed acts to raise the funds for pay- 
ing the expenses of the expeditions against the pirates, 
for meeting in part other debts of tlie province, and for 
maintaining the government. To dissolve the Assembly, 
and to declai'e its measures null and void, because not 
elected under the new election law, would be to cut off 
the means of carrying on the government, and the Gov- 
ernor and Council present in Carolina knew too well the 
condition of the people and the public sentiment to be- 
lieve that any new Assembly, elected though it might be 
at Charles Town under the old system, would renew these 
grants of sujDplies or do anything that the Proprietors 
might wish. They took upon themselves, therefore, the 
responsibility of withholding this instruction and allowing 
the Assembly to proceed with its business. They com- 
municated, however, to the Commons the repeal of the 
acts sent out by the Proprietors. The Commons denied 
the Proprietors' right of repeal. Messages passed between 
the two Houses upon the subject, and a general conference 
of both Houses was held, at which Mr. Cliief Justice Trott 
made a speech, maintaining the authority of their Lord- 
ships for the purpose ; to which the Commons replied. 
For this speech the Chief Justice was afterwards thanked 
by their Lordships. Recognizing the gravity of the situa- 
tion, which the Proprietors did not appear at all to appre- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 633 

ciate, the Governor and Council determined to send one 
of their own number to Enghmd to inform the Proprietors 
personally of the situation, and to explain the reasons 
which had induced the withholding of their instructions 
to dissolve the Assembly, as well as to lay before them the 
complaints against Chief Justice Trott, and to confer with 
their Lordships upon sundry other matters. All this, it 
w^as thought, could, better be done in person by one who 
had taken part in the councils and discussions in Carolina 
than by letter. Mr. Francis Yonge was selected for the 
purpose, was fully instructed, and sailed for England. 

In the meanwhile the affairs of the colony in England 
were all steadily tending to the subversion of the Proprie- 
tors' charter. While Governor Johnson was so ably and 
gallantly contending with the pirates, he had not failed to 
represent to the Lords of Admiralty the danger to the 
colony from these public enemies, and to appeal to his 
Majesty's government that a frigate should be sent to the 
coast of Carolina as soon as possible.^ Such an appeal, 
acknowledging the inability of the Proprietary Govern- 
ment to defend its territory, greatly strengthened the dis- 
position of the Royal Government in some way to put 
an end to a charter which allowed the Proprietors the 
powers and privileges of rulers over a portion of his 
Majesty's subjects, without the correlative responsibility 
of affording them protection. The Lords of Admiralty 
ordered that a frigate should be sent. The Board of 
Trade and Plantations determined the more resolutely to 
get rid of the charter. To this resolve, Mr. Boone, the 
agent of the Carolina Commons, Avho was still in England, 
was urgent and zealous in pressing their Lordships. 

The Proprietors had endeavored to persuade the board 
that Mr. Boone represented only a party or faction in the 
1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. II, 258. 



634 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

province, and not the people generally. In answer to 
this an address was signed not only by the members of 
the Commons, but by five hundred and sixty-eight others, 
— which was more than one-half of the (male) inhabi- 
tants of the province, — imploring to be taken under his 
Majesty's immediate government. In their address they 
say : — 

" We further take the liberty to inform your Majesty 
that notwithstanding all our miseries, the Lords Proprie- 
tors of the Province instead of using any endeavors for 
our relief and assistance are pleased to term all our en- 
deavors to procure your Majesty's Royal protection the 
business of a faction or party. We most humbly assure 
your ]Majesty that 'tis so far from being anything of that 
nature that all the inhabitants of the Province (in general) 
are not only convinced that no human power but that of 
your Majesty can save them, but earnestly and fervently 
desire that this once flourishing Province may be added 
to those already under your happy protection." 

Upon the receipt of the address, Mr. Boone again me- 
morialized the Commissioners of Trade and Plantation. 
" I again make bold," he said, " to trouble your Lordships 
in this behalf at their request entreating your Lordships 
once more to represent to his Majesty the miseries and 
distresses of his Majesty's subjects the inhabitants of the 
province of South Carolina and the certain inevitable 
ruin that must attend those that continue to remain 
unless his Majesty will be graciously pleased to take 
them under his immediate protection." 

Upon the receipt of this memorial with the petition of 
the people of South Carolina, the Board of Trade for- 
warded it at once to Mr. Secretary Craggs, saying that 
they thought it proper to lose no time in communicating 
it, so that he might receive his Majesty's orders there- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 635 

upon. The board added : " Upon this occasion we can- 
not help repeating the advice which has frequently been 
given by the Board that the proper methods be taken for 
resuming of this and all other proprietary governments 
into the hands of his Majesty." ^ 

Mr. Yonge arrived in London in the month of May, 
1719. His mission was not, however, to the Board of 
Trade and Plantation or to assist Mr. Boone in his ap- 
peals to that body. It was rather to save the Proprietors 
from their interference that he had crossed the ocean. 
Immediately, therefore, upon his arrival he sought to 
obtain an audience of their Lordships. 

The Board of Proprietors at this time consisted of but 
four members in their own right : Lord Carteret, the Pal- 
atine, the Hon. Maurice Ashley, Sir John Colleton, and 
John Danson. The minor Duke of Beaufort, as we have 
seen, was represented by the Hon. James Bertie ; the 
minor Earl of Craven, by Fulwar Skipwith ; the minor 
Joseph Blake in Carolina had no representative ; and the 
original share of the Earl of Clarendon, which stood in 
the name of Nicholas Trott, of London, was still unrepre- 
sented, as the other Proprietors refused to recognize his 
title. It so happened that just at this time Lord Car- 
teret, the Palatine, was about to begin his brilliant 
career as a diplomatist, and was preparing for his first 
embassy, — that to Sweden. In the careless arrogance of 
his character, it was scarcely to be expected that at such a 
time lie would waste his thoughts upon the disagreeable 
aifairs of Carolina. And so it happened that there was a 
repetition of the circumstances that, twenty-four years be- 
fore, attended the efforts to obtain a meeting of the Lords 
Proprietors to send out one of their number to Carolina 
to settle the disturbed condition of affairs that then ex- 

^ Public Records of So. Ca., vol. VII, 125 et seq. 



636 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

isted in the colony. Then it will be remembered that 
weeks were spent before a quorum could be got together, 
and that in the end a quorum was only made by admit- 
ting to seats both Archdale and Amy, with their doubtful 
and conflicting titles. The business of the Proprietors 
had since been still more loosely conducted. Meetings of 
their Lordships — the Palatine Court, as it was at first 
grandiloquently styled — had been entirely neglected and 
dispensed with. Everything was left to the Secretary, 
Mr. Shelton, and Mr. Shelton was the friend of Trott and 
Rhett. He received and read the dispatches, and, it was 
charged, misrepresented their contents in the interests of 
his friends in Carolina. He drew the papers and instruc- 
tions in reply, and carried them round to such of the Pro- 
prietors as were in London, or sent them by post to those 
who were not in town. It was not to be supposed that 
under these circumstances Mr. Yonge would easily obtain 
the audience he desired. Lord Carteret, to whom he ap- 
plied as Palatine, referred him to the other Proprietors. 
Having Avaited on them two or three times, he seems at 
last to have obtained a meeting of some of them, to whom 
he submitted a memorial. 

This memorial set out his commission from the Gov- 
ernor and Council of South Carolina to lay before their 
Lordships not only the several acts of Assembly passed 
at its last sessions for their approbation, but also to inform 
their Lordships of the reasons which induced the Gov- 
ernor and Council to defer dissolving the Assembly pur- 
suant to their commands, and to lay before them the 
communication which had passed between the Governor 
and his Council on the one hand, and the Commons House 
of Assembly on the otlier, touching their Lordships' right 
of repealing laws ratified and confirmed by their Lord- 
ships' deputies. He presented, therefore, the speech made 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT G37 

by Mr. Chief Justice Trott, at the general conference of 
both Houses, and the Commons' answer thereto, with the 
several messages which passed between them, which he 
hoped would show that no arguments or endeavors w^ere 
wanting on their part to assert their Lordships' right of 
repealing laws not ratified by themselves. 

He represented to them that the Governor and Council 
would not have allowed this opportunity of disputing 
their Lordships' powers, but would have dissolved the 
Commons according to their commands, had it been pos- 
sible to have done so, without the greatest injury to the 
country and to the merchants and other persons who had 
voluntarily furnished, or from whom necessary things had 
been pressed, for fitting out the two expeditions against 
the pirates, which amounted to X 10,000, and for which 
the Commons had provided the payment, which it coukl 
not be expected another House would again agree to, 
considering the ill-humor their dissolution was likely to 
create. He represented that the repeal of the Imposition 
act, the duties of which were applied to the payment of 
the clergy, the maintenance of the garrison, and the pay- 
ment of several public debts, left them no means of meet- 
ing orders which had been drawn, on the faith of that act, 
to the amount of c£30,000. The enforcement of the re- 
peal of the Indian Trading act might have brought those 
people down on the settlements and have occasioned an- 
other Indian war. It was absolutely necessary to provide 
some other means of sinking the X 35,000 in bills of credit, 
since the act to da so had been repealed. 

The above reasons, Mr. Yonge said, they presumed 
would convince their Lordshi[)s that the Governor and 
Council could not then immediately dissolve the Assem- 
bly, which had but six weeks to continue by their biennial 
act. " And it is with some pleasure," continued Mr. 



638 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Yonge, " that the Governor and Council can inform your 
Lordships that they think they have preserved any rights 
you were before possessed of, and at the same time have 
got such laws as with your Lordships' approbation will 
contribute much to settle the country, and give no offence 
to Great Britain." 

Mr. Yonge then went on to explain several minor mat- 
ters. The Governor and Council had frequently urged the 
Secretary, Mr. Hart, to transmit to their Lordships copies 
of the laws passed as required by their instructions, so 
that they might approve or signify their disapprobation 
of them ; but Mr. Hart's difficulty was to get them tran- 
scribed, as the cost of doing so was <£100 a year, besides 
books, pens, ink, and paper, while their Lordships' allow- 
ance to him for the whole was but X40. The Council, 
therefore, took the liberty of requesting their Lordships 
to augment the salary of the Secretary, or to allow a 
clerk, with competent salary, to attend the Council and 
transcribe such laws and other things necessary to be 
sent to them. Mr. Yonge stated further that the room 
the Council had sat in for the last four years belonged to 
Mr. William Gibbon, and they had promised Mr. Gibbon 
to ask for some compensation for its use ; and that the 
Council thought it not unreasonable to ask some allow- 
ance for themselves to defray the expenses they were at 
in attending the Council, Court of Chancery, and Assem- 
bly, which took up one- third part of their time. 

He was also directed to move their Lordships to pro- 
cure custom house officers at the port of Beaufort, that 
town increasing very much in inhabitants, and it being a 
very great discouragement to them that they were obliged 
to bring all their produce to Charles Town. 

It Avas the liumble request and advice of the Governor 
and Council, as a thing that would lay a very great obli- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 639 

gation on the country in general, that their Lordships 
would grant 6000 acres of land gratis to the public for the 
use of three garrisons — at Savannah Toivn^ the Congarees^ 
and the Apalachocoles ; and that some part of the land to 
the northward might be granted and disposed of on the 
same terms as the Yamassee lands in order to the settling 
and peopling the frontiers north and south. 

As these, his memorial said, would be very great 
concessions which they hoped would dispose the people 
to make their Lordships such returns of duty and respect 
as they wished had always been done, and contribute to 
the peopling of the country, so they also hoped their 
Lordshi2:)S would secure and preserve them in their 
properties (a much greater encouragement than all the 
rest) by putting it in their power to assert their 
undoubted right of appealing from any erroneous judg- 
ments in law, which right they are now debarred by the 
sole judicial power being lodged in the hands of Mr. Chief 
Justice Trott in the King's Bench, Court of Pleas, Court 
of Admiralty, and Court of Chancery ; a trust never 
reposed in any one man before in the world, and which 
the General Assembly had desired them to join in asking 
their Lordships to remedy. 

With the memorial Mr. Yonge delivered a letter from 
Governor Johnson, the articles of complaint against Chief 
Justice Trott, and an address from the Governor, 
Council, and Assembly that he might be removed or at 
least restricted to one single jurisdiction ; also several 
acts of Assembly, one of which was for the better 
recovery of their quit-rents, with clause making it of no 
force unless approved by their Lordships. 

Mr. Yonge was kept three months dangling in attend- 
ance upon their Lordships in the hope of satisfying 
them in anything they might have occasion to have 



640 HISTORY OP SOUTH CAROLINA 

inquired into concerning the condition of the country, or 
the best means to alUiy the discontent and reconcile the 
people to their authority, which he complains was no 
more than he might have expected since they had done 
him the honor to appoint him their Surveyor General 
and one of their Council, since also "he had sailed five 
or six thousand miles for their service " as the Governor 
and Council had desired him. The Proprietors, or rather 
such of them as were managing affairs, took, however, 
a very different view of his embassy. He was given to 
understand that the business on which he was sent was 
extremely disagreeable to them ; that both the trouble he 
had taken and the office he had accepted, as agent for the 
people, were inconsistent with his duty as one of their 
deputies, bound to act agreeable to their instructions.^ 
They declared their displeasure with the members of the 
Council who had joined the Lower House against Trott 
and, to manifest how much they resented their conduct, 
they broke up the present Council and appointed another, 
consisting of twelve instead of the former number of 
seven, who, with the Governor as the deputy of the Pala- 
tine, represented the other seven proprietorships. In the 
new Council those who had joined in tlie complaint 
against Trott, viz. Colonel Thomas Broughton, the Gov- 
ernor's brother-in-law, Mr. Alexander Skene, and Mr. 
James Kinloch, were left out, and one of the Proprietors 
told Mr. Yonge that he had also been left out but was 
retained in respect to Lord Carteret, who was his patron. ^ 
This much Mr. Yonge appears to have learned. For the 
rest he was dispatched back to Carolina with sealed 
packets, amongst which, upon his arrival, was found the 
followinof letter to the Governor : — 



'& 



1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Co., vol. I, 245. 
- Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 294. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 641 

" Sir. We have receiv'd and periis'd your Letters and all your 
Papers deliver'd us by your agent Mr Yonge and though we are 
favourably inclin'd in all our Thoughts relating to our Governor, yet 
we must tell you we think you have not obeyed your Orders and 
Directions given to you to Dissolve that Assembly and call another 
forthwith according to the ancient Usage and Custom of the Prov- 
ince ; and to publish our Repeals of those Acts of Assembly immedi- 
ately upon the receipt of our Orders aforesaid: But we shall say no 
more upon the subject now, not doubting but our governour will pay 
a more punctual obedience to our Orders for the future. 

" The Lords Proprietors llight of Confirming and Repealing Laws 
was so particular a Privilege granted to them by the Crown that we 
can never recede from it; an'^ we do assure you that we are not a 
little surprised that you should suffer that prerogative of ours to be 
disputed. 

" We have sent you herewith an Listruction under our Hands and 
Seals nominating such persons as we think fit to be of the Council 
with you six whereof and yourself and no less Number to be a Quorum. 
Upon your Receii3t of this we hereby require you to summon the 
said Council that they may qualify themselves according to Law and 
immediately sit upon the Dispatch of business. 

" We also send you the Repeal of the Acts of Assembly which we 
Order you to publish immediately upon the receipt of this. 

" We do assure Mr Johnson that we will stand by him in all Things 
that relate to the just Execution of his Office and we are Confident 
that he will perform his duty to us and support our Power and Pre- 
rogatives to the best of his Abilities. 

"If the Assembly chosen according to your pretended late Act is 
not dissolv'd as we formerly Order'd and a New Assembly Chosen 
pursuant to the Act formerly confirm'd by the Proprietors you are 
forthwith Commanded hereby to dissolve that Assembly and to call 
another, according to the above mention'd Assembly so we bid you 
Farewell." 

Lord Carteret's name was put to this document, not by 
himself, — he was absent on his mission to Sweden, — but 
by Mr. Ashley, who had a power to act for his Lordship. 
Mr. Bertie signed for the minor Duke of Beaufort. The 
other signatures were those of Maurice Ashley, Sir John 
Colleton, and John Danson ; and so this fatal act was, 
2t 



642 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

in fact, the act of but three of the actual Proprietors, 
and those the least influential of any who had been 
Proprietors of the province. 

With this letter they sent the instrument mentioned 
in it, under their hands and seals, appointing the twelve 
members of the new Council. These were William Bull, 
Ralph Izard, Nicholas Trott, Charles Hart, Samuel Wragg, 
Benjamin De La Consiliere, Peter St. Julien, William Gib- 
bon, Hugh Butler, Francis Yonge, Jacob Satur, and 
Jonathan Skrine.^ They now, also, again repealed the 
Duty act and the other objectionable measures, and, 
instead of granting land for the use of the garrisons, 
they gave strict orders that no more land should be 
granted to any person whatsoever, but ordered fifteen 
baronies, each consisting of 12,000 acres, to be laid out 
for their own private use as near as might be to Port 
Royal. The complaints against Trott they sent to him 
that he might answer them, and with them a letter of 
thanks for the speech he had made at the conference of 
the two Houses, in support of their right to repeal what 
laws they chose. ^ 

Governor Johnson was in a most humiliating position. 
The result of Mr. Yonge's embassy was a severe repri- 
mand and peremptory orders to obey his instructions — 
instructions which he well knew would endanger the 
authority of the Proprietors. But, brave as he had 
shown himself against the pirates, he quailed before the 
insignificant men who now recklessly controlled the Pro- 
prietary Government. " Assured," says Yonge, " that Mr. 
Trott was to rule the Province tho' he had the name 
of it . . . he resolved for the future to act by his and 
the new Councils advice that they might be answerable 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca., 293, note. 

2 Coll. ///s^ Soc. of So. Ca., vol. T, 195. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 64S 

for any ill effects their future councils and transactions 
might produce." In pursuance of his orders, he called 
his new Council and qualified such of them as would 
serve. Who they were who refused to qualify is not 
certainly known ; but, from subsequent proceedings, 
Bull, Izard, Hart, De La Consiliere, Butler, and Satur, 
with Trott, appear to have qualified. The Governor 
declared the three acts repealed, and by proclamation 
dissolved the Assembly and called a new one, to be 
chosen at Charles Town as before the act of 1716. 

" Thus," says Yonge, " the People were irritated and 
heated to a violent Degree, and the Basis of all Govern- 
ment being either Love Fear or Interest or perhaps any 
two, or a Mixture of all the three, but in this there was 
neither one nor the other ; for they thought they had no 
Reason to love the Proprietors who not only refused them 
Justice but protected and countenanc'd an Evil Minister 
in an Office which most immediately affected their Lives 
and Properties, who refused to part with the Unculti- 
vated Lands either for the Public or any Private use 
but their own ; tho' it is apparent by their Charter it 
was granted to them to be disposed of in such a Manner 
as to encourage his Majesty's Subjects to go over and 
settle there and to extend his Dominions ; and they had 
just before promised it in Tracts of 200 Acres to new 
Comers, on which Promise several Hundreds had come 
from Irelmid^ but could not have a Yard of Land to 
settle on when they came, and this notwithstanding the 
Country had been put to the Expense of paying some 
thousands of Pounds for their Passage to Carolina^ so that 
thus the Number of Inhabitants could not be increas'd 
nor their Frontiers strengthened, neither would they 
allow them the Freedom they desir'd, and what Avas 
the Practice of other Colonies in chusing their Repre- 



644 HlSTOKY O^ SOUTH CAROLINA 

sentatives nearest the methods used in England, which 
their Laws are to be by the express Words of the 
Charter. Another reason for their not loving the Pro- 
prietors is the same that made them not fear them i.e. 
their Inability to succour and protect them, either from 
their own Intestine Enemies, the Indians, or from tlie 
Spaniards with whom at that time there was a War ; 
for it is very natural to think that if they could not 
send Forces to assist them, it would be as difficult to 
correct them ; and lastly they judg'd it plainly their 
Interest to be under the Crown who could and would 
protect them, and also (as they hoped) to put them in 
the same Circumstances with his Majesty's other Colonies 
in America who they found had proper Assistance from 
the Crown. As there was therefore neither Fea7% nor 
Love, nor Interest to support the Government how could 
it long subsist ? " 



CHAPTER XXIX 

1719 

The Governor had called the new Assembly according 
to his instructions to be chosen at Charles Town. But 
now Colonel Rhett and the Chief Justice found them- 
selves mistaken in supposing they could continue their old 
influence to have such members chosen as they desired, 
even though the election was held for their convenience 
in the town and under their immediate supervision. It 
proved quite the contrary. They could not get so much 
as a single member chosen in their interest. The people 
were so incensed against the Lords Proprietors that it 
had become dangerous to say anything in their favor. 

To complicate matters still further, a rupture having 
taken place just before this between the courts of Great 
Britain and Spain, a project for attacking South Carolina 
and the Island of Providence was formed at Havana. 
The time for the meeting of the new Assembly had not 
yet arrived ; but, learning of this threatened invasion, 
Governor Johnson felt himself obliged to call his Council 
and such of the newly elected members of the Assembly 
as he could get together. These he informed of the 
advices he had received, and appealed to them to con- 
sider the ill condition of the fortifications and the neces- 
sity of immediately repairing them. This he proposed 
to do by voluntary subscription until the Assembly could 
provide for the work, and to show an example he himself 

645 



646 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

subscribed X500. The members of the Assembly replied 
that there was no occasion for this irregular and ineffi- 
cient means of providing the funds necessary; that the 
Duty act would amply supply them. The Governor re- 
minded them that that law was repealed. To this answer 
was made that the Public Receiver was ordered to sue 
any man that refused to pay as that law directed, its 
repeal not being recognized. Mr. Chief Justice Trott 
here interposed and announced that if any such action 
was brought in his courts, — for so he always spoke of the 
courts of the province, — he would give judgment for the 
defendant. The conference broke up without doing any- 
thing, the members of the Assembly determining rather 
to run the risk of the Spaniards than to acknowledge a 
right in the Proprietors of repealing their laws. Failing 
to obtain support from the civil branch of his govern- 
ment, the Governor turned to the military. He sum- 
moned the field-officers of the militia, to give them orders 
for a review of their regiments and to determine upon 
a rendezvous in case of the approach of the Spaniards. 
The officers received their orders as usual, and mustered 
their regiments at the time appointed. This afforded the 
very opportunity the leaders of the people had desired. 
Articles of an association had been prepared in advance, 
and when the militia assembled, it was signed almost 
without exception. The whole province Avas brought 
into a confederacy against the Proprietors without the 
knowledge of the Governor. 

Among those elected to the new House of Assembly 
was Alexander Skene, who had been in the Council, and 
was one of those who had been removed by the Proprie- 
tors for taking part in the remonstrance against Trott 
and Rliett. Mr. Skene had come from Barbadoes, where 
he had held a patent office, — the first of sucli appoint- 



UNDER THE PROPKIETAUY GOVERNMENT 647 

ments in the government of that ishind, — that of Secretary 
of the colony and private Secretary of the Governor. A 
dispute had arisen between the Governor and himself as 
to his fees, upon which the Governor had claimed the 
right to nominate his own private Secretary. The dispute 
had lasted several years, but had been ultimately decided 
in Mr. Skene's favor, and Queen Anne's letters manda- 
tory had given him possession of all his rights and per- 
quisites as private as well as public Secretary.^ It might 
have been supposed that the Carolina colonists had enough 
experience in controversies to have been quite competent 
to manage such a business, but Mr. Skene, coming from 
Barbadoes, where he had so successfully withstood the 
Governor, " was looked upon as a man that understood 
public affairs very well." Considering himself ill-used by 
the Proprietors, he readily became a leader in this move- 
ment, and was zealous and active in pulling down the 
tottering form of their government. His experience and 
resolute character fitted him for planning and consum- 
mating a revolution, and he exerted especial influence in 
the private meetings of the members of the Assembly. 

The first notice the Governor had of the certainty of 
the movement was by a letter of Mr. Skene, Colonel 
Logan, and Major Blakeway, dated November 28, 1719, 
in which they wrote they had no doubt that he had heard 
that the whole province had entered into an association to 
stand by their rights and privileges and to get rid of the 
oppression and arbitrary dealings of the Lords Proprietors. 
They assured him personally of the greatest deference and 
respect, and informed him that a committee of the people's 
representatives were last night appointed to wait upon 
his Honor that morning, to acquaint him that they were 
come to the resolution to have no regard to the Lords 
1 Hist, of Barbadoes (Poyer), 171, 196. 



648 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Proprietors' officers nor other administration ; and withal 
to beg his Honor would hold the government for the King 
till his Majesty's pleasure be known. They went on to 
say that the great value the whole country expresses for 
his Honor's person makes them desirous of having nobody 
but himself to govern them. 

" That we are of opinion," they said, " that your Honor 
may take the Government upon you, upon the offer of the 
People for the King and represent the Proprietors^ That 
rather than the whole Country should be in Confusion and 
want a Governing Power you held it for their Lordships ; 
tho' you were oblig'd to comply with the Province who 
were unanimously of opinion they would have no Proprie- 
tors government." 

They said they could wish for a longer and better oppor- 
tunity to explain the affair to him, but it was impossible, 
as the gentlemen would be with him in two hours at the 
furthest. 

The Governor, Avho Avas at his plantation about five 
miles off when he received this letter, came immediately 
to town and summoned such of his Council as he could 
get together (these were Mr. Izard, Judge Trott, Mr. 
Hart, Mr. de La Consiliere, Colonel Bull, Mr. Butler, and 
Mr. Jacob Satur), and informed them what he had heard 
and that he had met Mr. Skene and Mr. Brailsford, who 
told him that those who were to have waited upon him 
had changed their minds and gone to their respective 
homes. He asked the Council's opinion what was proper 
to be done. They unanimously advised liim that, con- 
sidering the parties liad altered their resolution of wait- 
ing on their Governor and gone home, no further notice 
should be taken of their proceedings until the Assembly 
met and the matter should be revived. 

The gentlemen who were members of the new House 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 649 

continued privately to meet and to strengthen and 
establish the association, which now comprised almost 
every one in the province, " except some few who more 
immediately belonged to the Proprietors." Having thus 
fortified themselves by the consent of the people, they 
met according to the tenor of their writs on the 10th of 
December, 1719, and the Governor sending them a 
message, as usual, that he was ready with the Council to 
receive them and to order them to choose a Speaker, they 
came in a body ; whereupon Mr. Middleton delivered 
himself in the following manner : — 

'' I am order'd by the Representatives of the People 
here present to tell 3^ou, that according to your Honour's 
order we are come to wait upon you ; I am further 
Order'd to acquaint you, that we own your Honour as 
our Governour, you being approv'd by the King ;. and as 
there was once in this Province a legal Council Represent- 
ing the Proprietors as their Deputies, which Constitution 
being now alter'd, we do not look upon the Gentlemen 
present to be a legal Council ; so I am order'd to tell you. 
That the Representatives do disown them as such and will 
not act with them on any Account." 

This speech was delivered in writing at the Governor's 
desire and signed by Mr. Middleton, as President, and 
twenty-two more of the iVssembly. 

Anticipating a dissolution, this body had resolved, prob- 
ably before presenting the address, that the three laws 
which the Proprietors had repealed when they liad ap- 
pointed the new Council — to wit, (1) the act declaring 
the right of the House of Commons to nominate a Public 
Receiver; (2) the act laying an imposition on importa- 
tions; and (3) the act for electing the representatives by 
parishes — were still in force and could not be re^Dcaled but 
by the General Assembly. They also resolved: — 



650 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

" That the Writs whereby we the Representatives here 
met were elected are illegal: First Because they are sign'd 
by such a Council as we conceive, the Proprietors have not 
a power to appoint. 

" Secondly for that their Council does consist of a 
greater Number of Members than the Proprietors them- 
selves are which we believe is contrary to the Design and 
original Intent of their Charter, and approaching too near 
the Method taken by his Majesty and his Predecessors in 
his Plantations whom they might not pretend to imitate 
or follow. His Majesty not being confin'd to any Number 
in his Council in his Plantations but as he thinks fit him- 
self; but the Proprietors as subjects, we believe are bound 
by a Charter. 

" Thirdly were there no Doubt of the Legality of the 
Council yet according to the Proprietors Instructions, 
there was not a sufficient Number to dissolve the last 
Assembly, one of the Council Signing being a Foreigner, 
not Naturalized, and consequently not capable of doing 
any Act of Government in any of tlie British Dominions 
and expressly contrary to the Lords Proprietors Cliarter ; 
and a high Act of Presumption in them thus to impose 
upon His Majesty's Free People of the Province for the 
aforesaid Reasons." 

They further resolved : " That we cannot Act as an 
Assembly but as a Convention delegated by the People 
to prevent the utter Ruin of this Government if not tlie 
Loss of the Province, until His Majesty's Pleasure be 
known. 

" That the Lords Proprietors have by such their Pro- 
ceedinofs unhino'd the Frame of Government and for- 
feited their Right to the same ; and that an Address be 
prepared to desire the Honourable Robert Johnson Esq. 
our present Governor to take the Government upon him 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 651 

in the King's name, and to Continue the Administration 
thereof until His Majesty's Pleasure be known." 

These bold proceedings were well calculated to alarm 
the Governor, and there was consternation in his Council, 
and doubt as to their course ; were rough or gentle means 
to be used ? Trott quailed before the people, and, with a 
majority of the Council, advised that the defection was 
too general to admit the use of any other means than mild 
expostulations. If these failed, then the Assembly might 
be dissolved, which would make them disperse, and so put 
an end to the dispute for the present. But, in that case, 
how could money be raised to prepare for the Spaniards, 
who were daily expected? The Lords Proprietors had 
repealed the duty law, which repeal they were bound to 
respect. The result of these deliberations was a message 
to the Commons that the Governor and Council desired 
a conference with them. The Commons answered that 
they would not receive any message or paper from the 
Governor in conjunction with the gentlemen he called his 
Council. Thus constrained, the Governor sent for them 
in his own name, and delivered them a long and earnest 
speech, pleading and arguing with them, and threatening 
them ; but all in vain. The Assembly was neither to be 
shaken by persuasion, nor intimidated by threats. In the 
course of this speech, the Governor said : — 

" I do require and Demand of you therefore and expect 
you to Answer me in plain and positive Terms Whether 
you own the Authority of the Lords Proprietors as Lords 
of this Province, and having Authority to Administer or 
Authorise others to Administer the Government thereof ; 
saving tlie Allegiance of Them and the People to His Most 
Sacred Majesty King George? Or Whether you abso- 
lutely renounce all Obedience to Them and Tliose Com- 
mission'd and Authoris'd by Them ? Or Whether you 



652 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

admit their General Power and only dispute that particu- 
lar Branch of their Authority in Constituting a Council 
after the Manner they have now done? " 

The Commons did not long consider this lengthy speech, 
which Avas delivered to them in Avriting, but soon returned 
with the following message : — 

"We have already acquainted you, That we would not 
receive any Message or Paper from your Honour in Con- 
junction with the Gentlemen you are pleas' d to call your 
Council ; therefore we must now again repeat the same, 
and beg Leave to tell you, That the Paper your Honour 
read and deliver'd to us we take no Notice of, nor shall 
we give any farther Answer to it, but in G-7'eat Britain.^^ 

Immediately after, the Commons, however, returned 
with another address to the Governor, assuring him of the 
universal affection, deference, and respect the inhabitants 
throughout the whole country bore to his Honor's person, 
and their desire for a continuance of his gentle and good 
administration ; " and since we," they said, " who are 
entrusted with and are the Assertors of their Rights and 
Liberties are unanimously of Opinion, that no Person is 
fitter to Govern so Loyal and obedient a People to his 
Sacred Majesty King George so we more earnestly desire 
and entreat your Honour to take upon you the Govern- 
ment of this Province in his Majesty's name 'till his Pleas- 
ure shall be known, by which Means we are convinc'd 
that this (at present) unfortunate Colony may flourish as 
well as those who feel the happy Influence of his Majesty's 
immediate Care. 

" As the Well being and Preservation of the Province," 
they continued, "depends greatly on your Honour's com- 
plying with our Requests so we flatter ourselves that you 
who have express'd so tender a Regard for it on all Occa- 
sions and particularly in Hazarding your own Person in 



UNDER THE PROPKIETAKY GOVERNMENT 653 

{in Expedition against the Pirates for its Defence, an 
Example seldom found in Governors ; so we hope, sir, 
that you will exert yourself at this Juncture for its Sup- 
port ; and we promise your Honour on our Parts the most 
faithful Assistance of Persons duly sensible of your Hon- 
our's great Goodness, and big with the Hopes and Expec- 
tations of his Majesty's Protection and Countenance. 

"And we farther beg Leave to assure your Honour that 
we will in the most Dutiful Manner Address His Most 
Sacred Majesty King George for the Continuance of 
your Government over us under whom we doubt not to 
be a Happy People." 

To this appeal, which was doubtless made in all sin- 
cerity, for both the present Governor and his father. Sir 
Nathaniel Johnson, were endeared to the people by distin- 
guished and heroic services, the Governor returned the 
folio win Of answer : — 

" Gentlemen — I am Oblidg'd to you for your good 
Opinion of me ; but I hold my Commission from the true 
and absolute Lords and Proprietors of this Province who 
recommended me to His Majesty, and I have His Appro- 
bation ; it is by that Commission and Power I Act, and I 
know of no Power or Authority can dispossess me of the 
same, but only those who gave me those Authorities. In 
Subordination to them I shall always Act, and to my 
utmost maintain their Lordships just Power and Preroga- 
tives without encroaching on the People's Rights and 
Privileges. I do not expect or desire any Favour from 
you only that of seriously taking into your Consideration 
the approaching Danger of a Foreign Enemy and the 
Steps you are taking to involve yourselves and this Prov- 
ince in Anarchy and Confusion." 

That afternoon the Governor issued a proclamation 
dissolving the Assembly ; but the Convention, as the 



654 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Assembly iioav called themselves, following the precedent 
established in England by Parliament upon the abdication 
of James, ordered the proclamation torn from the Mar- 
shal's hands, and issued a proclamation in their own names, 
which directed all officers, civil and military, to hold their 
offices and employments until further orders from them. 
Finding: that Governor Johnson would not come into 
their movement, they resolved to have a Governor of 
their own choosing, and Colonel James Moore, who was 
commander-in-chief of the militia in the late Indian War, 
but had lately been removed for his active opposition to 
the authority of the Proprietors, was chosen. 

On Monday, the 21st of December, 1719^ Governor 
Johnson, having been informed that the Convention in- 
tended to proclaim their Governor in the King's name, 
came to town and wrote circular letters to his Council 
to meet him ; but they did not respond. The Governor 
had previously had a conference with Colonel Parris, the 
commanding officer of the militia of the town, upon whose 
support he relied, and because of the advice he had re- 
ceived from Havana, had ordered the town companies to 
be reviewed on this day, the 21st. Finding, however, 
that the members of the Convention had availed them- 
selves of this opportunity, and had determined upon that 
day to proclaim their Governor, when the people should 
come together with arms in their hands, he had, on the 
Saturday before, countermanded the order for the review, 
and had given particular orders to Colonel Parris that he 
should not suffer a drum to be beat in the town. The 
Governor understood that he had assurances from Colonel 
Parris that liis orders should be obeyed. He was greatly 
surprised, therefore, when, upon coming into town early 
on Monday morning, he found the militia drawn up in 
the market-place, with colors fl3'ing at the forts and on 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 655 

all the ships in the harbor, and the people, with great 
solemnity, preparing for proclaiming their Governor. 

Upon this. Governor Johnson, amiable as he was, lost 
his temper and with it his dignity. Advancing to Colonel 
Parris, he asked how he durst appear in arms contrary to 
his orders ? and commanded him in the King's name to 
disperse his men. Colonel Parris answered he was obey- 
ing the orders of the Convention, and the Governor ap- 
proaching, he ordered his men to present their muskets 
and bade him stand off at his peril. Governor Johnson 
hoped that some of the gentlemen would have joined him, 
but the defection was so general that there was hardly a 
man not in arms, and only one of his Council came near 
him. This was Mr. Lloyd, and he, it afterward appeared, 
was sent by the Convention party, under the guise of 
friendship, to be on hand to prevent any hot action to 
which the Governor might be provoked. Two days after- 
wards Mr. Lloyd was sworn into the new Council. Even 
Trott and Rhett, in this extremity, forsook the Governor 
and kept at a distance, the silent and inactive spectators 
of the ruin of the cause of the Proprietors they had done 
so much to promote. 

The members of the Convention now appeared and 
marched to the Fort, and there proclaimed James Moore 
Governor of the province, in the name of the King, amidst 
the acclamations of the populace. 

Upon their return, they proceeded to the election of 
twelve councillors, after the manner of the Royal Govern- 
ment. Of these Sir Hovenden Walker was made Presi- 
dent.^ The government thus established consisted of a 

1 Sir Hovenden Walker had been an admiral in the British service and 
had commanded the naval part of the unsuccessful expedition sent out 
by St. John (Bolinf^broke) in 1711 for the conquest of Canada. England 
in the EightPoMh Century (Lecky), vol. I, 115. He had been Deputy 
Governor of North Carolina. Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. I, 529. 
This is his only jDublic appearance in South Carolina. 



656 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Governor, Council, and Convention ; but the Convention 
soon voted themselves an Assembly, and, as such, made 
laws and assumed the power of appointing all officers. 
Nicholas Trott Avas immediately removed, and Richard 
AUein was made Chief Justice. A Secretary and Provost 
Marshal were appointed, and it was declared that no one 
should be capable of bearing an office in the province who 
owned the authority of the Lords Proprietors except as 
to such offices as related to their own particular revenues 
and property. The persons holding such offices were Mr. 
Rhett and Mr. Yonge, the Receiver of the Proprietors' 
revenues and the Surveyor General of the Proprietors' 
lands. Rhett thus escaped personally the effects of the 
revolution, which his conduct had done so much to bring 
about. Colonel John Barnwell was chosen assent for the 
province, and sent to England with instructions and or- 
ders to apply to the King and lay a statement of the pro- 
ceedings of the people before his Majesty, beseeching him 
to take the province under his immediate care. 

In the meanwhile the Convention published the fol- 
lowing declaration of the causes which had led to the 
revolution : ^ — 

" Whereas the Proprietors of this province have of late assumed 
to themselves an arbitrary and illegal power of repealing such laws as 
the General Assembly of the settlement have thought fit to make for 
the preservation and defence thereof and acted in many other things 
contrary to the laws of England and the charter to them and us free- 
men granted; whereby we are deprived for those measures we have 
taken for the defence of the settlement, being the south west frontier 
of his Majesty's territories in America, and thereby left naked to 
the attacks of our inveterate enemies and next door neighbors the 
Spaniards from whom through the divine Providence we have had 
a miraculous deliverance, and daily expect to be invaded by them 
according to the repeated advices we have from time to time received 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 276. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT Q5l 

from several places : And whereas pursuant to the instructions and 
authorities to us given, and trust in us reposed by the inhabitants of 
this settlement, and in execution of the resolutions by us made we 
did in due form apply ourselves in a whole body by an address to the 
honourable Robert Johnson appointed Governor of this province by 
the Lords Proprietors and desired him in the name of the inhabitants 
of this province to take upon him the government of the same, and in 
byhalf of his Majesty the King of Great Britain France and Ireland 
until his Majesty's pleasure had been known which the said Governor 
refusing to do, exclusive of the pretended power of the I^ords Pro- 
prietors over the settlement, has put us under the necessity of applying 
to some other person to take upon him as Governor the administration 
of all the affairs civil and military within the settlement in the name 
and for the service of his most sacred Majesty, as well as making 
treaties alliances and leagues with any nation of the Indians until his 
Majesty's pleasure be further known : And whereas James Moore a 
person well affected to his present Majesty and also zealous for the 
interest of the settlement now in a sinking condition has been pre- 
vailed with pursuant to such our application to take upon him in the 
King's name and for the King's service and safety of the settlement 
the above mentioned charge and trust : We therefore whose names 
are hereunto subscribed, the Representatives and delegates of his 
Majesty's liege people and free born subjects of the said settlement 
now met in convention at CharlesTown, in their names and in behalf 
of his sacred Majesty George by the grace of God King of Great Britain 
Fi'ance and Ireland, in consideration of the former great confidence 
in his firm loyalty to our most gracious King George, as well as in his 
conduct, courage, and other great abilities ; do hereby declare the 
said James Moore his Majesty's Governor of this settlement, invested 
with all the powers and authorities belonging and appertaining to 
any of his Majesty's governors in America till his Majesty's pleasure 
herein shall be further known. And we do hereby for ourselves and in 
the name and on the behalf of the inhabitants of the said settlement, as 
their representatives and' delegates, promise and oblige ourselves most 
solemnly to obey maintain assist and support the same James Moore 
in the administration of all affairs civil and military within the settle- 
ment as well as in the execution of all his functions aforesaid as 
Governor for his sacred Majesty King George. And further we do 
expect and command that all officers both civil and military within 
the settlement do pay him all duty and obedience as his Majesty's 
Governor, as they shall answer to the contrary at their utmost peril. 
2u 



658 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Given under our hand at this convention this 21" day of December 
1719." 

Governor Johnson, after this solemn and public decla- 
ration, recognized that the government of the Proprietors 
was totally overthrown, and that the current of popular 
sentiment was too violent and strong to withstand. His 
onl}^ hope for their Lordships now was that the revolu- 
tionists would not long remain in a state of union, har- 
mony, and peace among themselves ; but would soon 
divide again into the old parties. The first unpopular 
step of their Governor might create disturbance and dis- 
affection. His policy, therefore, was quietly to wait for 
such occurrences, ready to take advantage of them when- 
ever they should appear. In the meantime, he called 
together the civil officers of the Proprietors, and ordered 
them to secure the public records, and to close their 
offices.^ 

His next step was to report an account of the proceed- 
ings to the Proprietors. This he did in a carefully pre- 
pared statement which he transmitted to their Lordships. 
He told them that the colonists had long labored under 
difficulties and hardships by debts contracted in the Indian 
wars, and in protecting their trade against pirates. He 
spoke of the unhappy differences between their Lordsliips 
and the people about the privileges of their charter. He 
told them that some of the richest of the inhabitants had 
persuaded the rest that neither they themselves nor their 
posterity could ever be safe in their persons, or secure in 
their properties, without the protection of the Crown ; 
that they had, therefore, with one accord, disclaimed and 
renounced all obedience to their Lordships, and put them- 
selves under the care and government of the King ; that 
he, though earnestly solicited by them, had refused to 
1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 278. 



UNDER THE PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 659 

govern them in any other way than as commissioned and 
appointed by the Lords Proprietors ; that the people had, 
thereupon, shaken off his authority, and chosen another 
Governor for themselves in the name and in behalf of the 
King. He was in no wise responsible for the revolution. 
It had not been occasioned by his imprudence or malad- 
ministration, and, therefore, he hoped whatever might be 
the issue, that their Lordships would use their influence 
to continue him in the government of the province. 

Having thus performed his duty to the Proprietors, he 
wrote also to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, giving 
them a similar account of the proceedings of the people 
and the overthrow of the Proprietary Government, and 
made an appeal to them that if they accepted the govern- 
ment for his Majesty that he should be commissioned by 
them as Governor. 

" That he apprehending himself bound in Honour to 
Govern Those People in no other Way than as he was 
Commission'd by the Lords Proprietors and instructed by 
his Majesty to whom he had always been a Faithful and 
Loyal subject, and the people having for that Cause dis- 
owned his Authority, with that of the said Lords he 
humbly hop'd their Lordships would interest themselves 
so far that if His Majesty thought fit to take the Govern- 
ment into His own Hands, he might be honour'd with 
liis Majestys immediate Commission, or otherwise that he 
miglit be restor'd to his Government as formerly by his 
^Lijestys special Command; the present Disturbances not 
l)eing in any wise owing to his Male- Administration as 
might appear by the Address of the People to him, a copy 
of Avhich he enclos'd them.''^ 

Li tlie meanwhile the new government proceeded with 

^Proceedings of the People (Yonge) ; Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 184; 
Hewatt's Hist, of ^o. C'a., vol. 1, 281-282. 



660 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the business of the country. A new duty law, and others 
for raising money to defray the various expenses of the 
government, were passed. To their new Governor they 
voted X2500, and to their Chief Justice X800 current 
money as yearly salaries. To their agent in England 
XIOOO sterling was transmitted, and to defray those and 
the other expenses of the government an act was passed 
laying a tax on lands and negroes. In short, says Hewatt, 
the popular Assembly imposed such burdens on their con- 
stituents as under the Proprietary Government would have 
been deemed intolerable grievances. 

Governor Johnson and some of his party refused to pay 
this tax, as they did not recognize the authority of the 
Assembly which imposed it. On account of his peculiar 
position Governor Johnson himself was exempted ; but 
it Avas rigidly enforced against all other persons. Though 
unable actively to oppose the new government, Governor 
Johnson omitted no opportunity to throw every obstacle 
in its way. He would have most seriously embarrassed 
its operations had Rhett acted with him in the interests 
of the Proprietors ; but Rhett was now making terms 
with their opponents. 

Colonel Rhett was not only the Proprietors' Receiver 
General, but also the Comptroller of the King's customs. 
To him, therefore, Governor Johnson wrote, proposing 
that as all masters of ships were, under the laws of trade, 
obliged to take out tlieir clearance from him as the Comp- 
troller of customs, he might refuse to allow an}^ ship to 
be cleared by the custom-house officers Until the masters 
had paid their duty to him as Public Receiver. By this 
means the fees due to the Governor and Secretary would 
have found tlieir way in their regular channel, as the 
masters of vessels would most readily have gone where 
they could have obtained the most authentic clearances. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 661 

But Rliett was no friend to Governor Johnson, and was 
besides, at this time, looking to his interests under the 
neAV government ; so he refused to act as Johnson desired 
in this matter, and for this essential service he was at 
once made, by the revolutionary government. Overseer of 
the Repairs and Fortifications in Charles Town, — a most 
lucrative position, and at the same time accepted the 
position from Governor Moore of Lieutenant General of 
the Militia. Yet, strange to say, he still continued to 
maintain his credit with the Lords Proprietors, to, whom 
he wrote on the occasion to assure them that he accepted 
the commission from Mr. Moore only because it might 
give him an opportunity to bring the people over again to 
their interest. The Proprietors believed him, and sent 
him a letter of thanks and a confirmation of his former 
commissions from them.^ 

And now came further and certain advices that the 
Spaniards were actually fitting out a fleet at Havana to 
attack Providence and South Carolina ; but it was uncer- 
tain which place they would first assail. The new gov- 
ernment proclaimed martial law, and ordered all men to 
repair in arms to Charles Town. Governor Johnson 
seized the opportunity of making one more appeal to the 
people, and addressed the following letter to the Conven- 
tion, who now styled themselves an Assembly i^ — 

" Gentlemen : I Flatter myself that the Invasion which 
at present threatens the Province has awaken'd a Thought 
in you of the Necessity there is of the Forces acting under 
a Lawful Authority and Commission. The Inconveniences 
and Confusion of not admitting it are so obvious I need 
not mention them. I have hitherto born the Indignities 
pat upon me, and the Loss I sustain by being put out of 

1 Proceedings of the People (Yonge) ; Carroll's Coll.^ vol. II, 18G. 
•^ Ibid.y 187. 



662 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

my Government with as much Temper as the nature of 
the Thing will allow of 'till such time as His Majestys 
Pleasure shall be known ; but to have another assume 
my Authority when Danger threatens the Province and 
Action is expected, and to be depriv'd of the Opportunity 
of Serving the Public in my Station as I am indispensably 
bound to do upon such Occasions I being answerable to 
the King for any Neglect regarding the Welfare of the 
Province is what I cannot set down patiently with. 

" Gentlemen," continued Governor Johnson, "I am will- 
ing to consult and advise with you for the Good and 
Safety of tlie Province in this Time of imminent Danger 
as a convention of the people as you first call'd yourselves. 
Nor do I see in this present Juncture of Affairs any Occa- 
sion of Formalities in our Proceedings or that I explain 
by whose Authority I Act in Grants of Commissions or 
other Public Orders. Mr. Moor's Commission you have 
given him does not pretend to say it is deriv'd from the 
King. You have already confess'd I am invested with 
some authority you do approve of, and that is enough. 

" What I insist upon is To be allow'd to Act as Gov- 
ernor because I am approv'd by the King ; I do not 
apprehend at present there is a Necessity of Acting any- 
thing but what relates to Military Affairs ; and I do 
believe People will be better satisfi'd and more ready to 
advance Necessaries, to trust the Public, and to obey my 
Commands (by Virtue of the King's Authority Avhich I 
have) if left to their Liberty, than any other Person in 
this Province and in a short Time we may expect His 
Majesty's Pleasure will be known. 

" If my Reasons have not the Weight with you I expect 
they should, you ought at least to put it to a Vote ; that 
if a majority be against it I may have that to justify 
myself to the King and the World who ought to be sat- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 663 

isfi'd that I have done all I can to serve the country, and 
do my Duty in my Station." 

The Convention did not think fit to give any answer to 
this letter, but continued the government as they had 
begun. For some reason Sir Hovenden Walker was 
displeased, and refused to act longer with the revolution- 
ary party. He retired to his plantation, and Mr. Richard 
Allein was chosen President of their Council in his stead. 

The fortifications were repaired under the supervision 
of Colonel Rhett ; but the work, though costing a great 
sum of money, was done so slightingly that in a little 
time it was as much out of repair as ever. The whole 
country was in arms for more than a fortnight, every 
day expecting the appearance of the Spanish fleet, Avhich 
it was known had sailed from Havana. Happily, the 
Spaniards had determined first to attack Providence, and 
then to proceed against Carolina ; but by the conduct 
and courage of Captain Woodes Rogers, at that time 
Governor of the island, they were repulsed, and soon 
after the greater part of their fleet was lost in a storm. 

The Spanish expedition having failed, the man-of-war 
Flamhoiirgh^ commanded by Captain Hildesly, came from 
Providence, and took up her station at Charles Town ; 
and about the same time his Majesty's ship Phoenix, 
commanded by Captain Pierce, arrived from a cruise. 
The arrival of these vessels of war renewed the intrigues 
of both parties. The commanders were courted by both. 
They publicly declared for Governor Johnson as the 
magistrate invested with legal authority. This greatly 
encouraged Governor Johnson's party ; and having the 
records in his possession, and the clergy refusing to 
marry without his license, as the only legal Ordinary in 
the province, the inconveniences began to be felt, and to 
cool the people in their support of the popular govern- 



664 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

ment. Thus emboldened, Governor Johnson, with the 
assistance of the commander of the ships of war, made 
one more attempt to recover his authority. He brought 
up the ships of war in front of the town, and threaten'ed 
it with immediate destruction if the people any longer 
refused obedience to him. But the people having both 
arms in their hands and forts in their possession, with 
seventy pieces of cannon mounted on their ramparts and 
near 500 men beside them, bid defiance to the Governor 
and his men-of-war. The Governor, seeing, therefore, 
that the people were neither to be worn by persuasion 
nor terrified by threats, abandoned the struggle, and 
the Proprietary Government was at an end.^ 

1 Proceedings of the People (Yonge) ; Carroll's Coll.^ vol. II, 189, 190; 
Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 28G-288. 



CHAPTER XXX 

1720-29 

Colonel John Barnwell was already on his voyage 
to England, the envoy of the Convention, to appeal to his 
Majesty King George for a confirmation of the revolu- 
tion they had accomplished in the overthrow of the 
Proprietary Government. Thither Nicholas Trott, now 
deprived of his various oiSces, also determined to go to 
renew his intrigues. Before embarking, Trott wrote to 
Governor Johnson, informing him of his purpose and 
proposing that, if he would contribute to his expenses, 
he would give the Proprietors such a favorable account 
of his conduct and services as would insure to him tlie 
continuance of his office. But the Governor, knowing 
well Trott's character, and convinced that both the revolt 
of the people and the subversion of the government were 
in a great measure to be ascribed to his pernicious policy 
and secret correspondence with the Secretary of the Pro- 
prietors, disdainfully rejected his interest and friendship. 
To this disrespect of the judge Governor Johnson after- 
wards attributed, many of the injurious suspicions the 
Proprietors entertained of his honor and fidelity. They 
made no answer to his letters or even informed him Avhether 
his conduct during the popular commotions had met with 
their approbation or disapprobation. Some of them even 
alleged that he was privy to the designs of the malcon- 
tents and gave them countenance.^ 

1 Hewatt's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 288. 
665 



666 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

It seems to have been the fortune of the Carolina em- 
bassies to arrive in England in times of unusual excite- 
ment. Boone, fifteen years before, had reached London 
in the midst of the struggle over the " Occasional Con- 
formity " bill, and could secure little attention to the 
affairs of Carolina while the interests of the Proprietors 
and of the government were absorbed in the election 
which followed. It now happened that Barnwell and 
Trott arrived just as the great South Sea bubble craze 
had begun. In both instances the affairs of Carolina 
were involved in the excitement. 

King George, at the time, was in Hanover engrossed 
in negotiations in regard to continental affairs, and the 
administration of his British dominions was left in the 
hands of the Lords Justices.^ 

While Great Britain was leaving the Carolinians to 
defend themselves, and the province, the extreme southern 
outpost of her American dominions, as best they might 
from the hostile inroads of the Spaniards and the cruel 
massacre of the Indians, and permitting the pirates to 
prey upon the legitimate and growing commerce of her 
OAvn colony, and actually to blockade the harbor of Charles 
Town, curiously enough the mere shadow of a trade 
allowed by the court of Madrid to the Spanish coasts 
in America was enough to arouse the cupidity of the 
whole English nation. The King of Spain had granted 
permission that a single British ship under 500 tons 
should make one annual voyage to certain British fac- 
tories which he alloAved to be settled there. Upon this 
small and precarious foundation was erected the famous 
South Sea scheme. The rice of Carolina, already esteemed 
the best in the world ^ and which had now begun to afford 

1 Smollett's Hist, of England, vol. II, 385. 

2 Colonial Eecords of No. Ca., vol. II, 124. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 667 

a substantial article of steady commerce, was not thought 
of when, in 1711, a monopoly of the trade to the Spanish 
coasts in America was sanctioned by Royal charter and 
by act of Parliament as a means of improving the public 
credit and providing for the payment of the government's 
floating debts. English merchants were not slow in swal- 
lowing the gilded bait. The fancied Eldorado dazzled 
even their discerning eyes. The exploits of Drake were 
quoted, and the dreams of Raleigh renewed. The spirit 
spread throughout the whole nation, and many who 
scarcely knew whereabout America lay felt, neverthe- 
less, quite certain of its being strewed with gold and 
gems.^ From this beginning the stock of the South Sea 
Company had, without any real intrinsic value, become a 
part of the financial system of the government, and had 
advanced to a very great figure. The policy of gradually 
paying ofT the national debt by incorporating it with the 
stock of flourishing companies was in high favor, and in 
1717 an act was passed permitting the Proprietors of cer- 
tain short annuities to subscribe the residue of the terms 
in the South Sea stock. In 1719 the project was con- 
ceived of enormously enlarging its scope. The Directors 
proposed to provide a sinking fund for paying off the 
national debt. This was accepted by the government, 
and a bill was passed in 1720 for carrying out this wild 
scheme. The famous Mississippi scheme of Law, the pro- 
totype of this, based, however, upon a somewhat stronger 
foundation, that of the exclusive trade to Louisiana which 
France could control, had, in the preceding year, pro- 
duced a wild enthusiasm of speculation which had reached 
and spread through England. Upon an absurd report 
that Gibraltar and Port Mahon would be exchanged for 

1 Hut. of England (Mahon), vol. II, 4; England in the Eighteenth 
Century (Lecky), vol. I, 216, 348. 



668 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

some place in Peru by whicli the English trade to the 
South Sea would be protected and enlarged, the stock rose 
to 1000 for 100. Exchange Alley was filled with a strange 
concourse of statesmen and clergymen, churchmen and dis- 
senters, Whigs and Tories, lawyers, tradesmen, and even 
multitudes of women. All other professions and employ- 
ments were utterly neglected, and the people's attention 
wholly engrossed by this and other chimerical schemes 
which Avere known by the denomination of "bubbles." 
New companies started up every day. Some of the com- 
panies hawked about were for the most extravagant ob- 
jects. " Wrecks to be fished for on the Irish Coast," 
"Insurance for Horses and Other Cattle" (X2,000,000), 
" Insurance for Losses by Servants," " To make Salt 
Water Fresh," " For building Hospitals for Bastard Chil- 
dren," " For building Ships against Pirates," " For ex- 
tracting Silver from Lead," " For the Transmuting of 
Quicksilver into a Malleable and Fine Metal," " For mak- 
ing Iron with Pit Coal," "For importing a Large Number 
of Jackasses from Spain," " For a Wheel for a Perpetual 
Motion," " For an Undertaking luJiicli shall in Due Time 
he revealed.'''^ One proposed company, which innnedi- 
ately aft'ects this history, is not mentioned in the books 
from which the above instances are taken, and that was 
a company to purchase Carolina. 

On the 4th of June, 1720, Maurice Ashley wrote a 
letter to a lady, whose name is not given, but which 
from intrinsic evidence, as well as from the fact that 
it was found among the Shaftesbury papers, was doubt- 
less addressed to Lady Shaftesbury, the widow of the 
third Earl, invoking her intercession with Lord Stan- 

1 Hist, of England (Malion), vol. 11, 16, 17 ; England in the Eigh- 
teenth Century (Lecky), vol. I, 349, 350; Smollett's Hist, of England., 
vol. II, 400. 



UNDER THE* PROPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 669 

hope and others to forbear the opposition of the Royal 
Government to a phm for the sale of Carolina by the 
Proprietors to a company to be formed. The letter is 
illustrative of the times. ^ It is dated London, June 
4, 1720: — 

"The day your Ladyship went to Beachworth," wrote Ashley, 
"I was at Kensitigton to wait upon you; intending at the same 
time to inform you that we have had a Proposal! made to us with 
respect to Carolina of so much advantage to the Proprietors that my 
single share may amount to Thirty Thousand Pound. The Terms 
of Agreement your Ladys'p will find indorsed. They are drawn into 
Form and already signed by Lady Granville for her son by Lord 
Carteret; by Mr Bertie Guardian to the Duke of Beaufort, by Mr 
Danton ^ and myself. I expect opposition from some of the Min- 
istry. And since it has been rumour'd abroad that the Proprietors 
were upon some project of this sort I have had a message from Secre- 
tary Craggs to know upon what terms we would part with our inter- 
est in the Province.^ Before this was thus rumoured abroad they 
took no notice of us imagining to distress and make us part with it 
for little or Nothing to them. Then would all the advantage be 
their own either by disposing of the Province by Subscription or by 
giving it up to the South Sea for ten times as much as they would 
allow the Proprietors whose Familys raised this Province to England. 
There's no doubt of our succeeding in case the Court favours us or 
but lets us alone. I have no reason to question your Ladys'p's inter- 
esting yourself in this matter if it were only a concern of mine ; but 
I think it must needs be of more weight with those you apply to in 
case your Lady's'p can speak of it as a concern of your son and his 
family, and to enable your Lady's'p to treat it as such I do assure 
you I will give any Security that it shall be so if we can obtain what 
may be worth securing. T begg your Ladys'p therefore that since 
we have a prospect of obtaining something soe considerable you 

1 Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 884. 

2 Danson. 

3 Upon the collapse of the South Sea bubble, it was ascertained that 
Secretary Craggs had been one of those to whom fictitious stock had been 
issued to facihtate the passing of the bill. He died upon the day of the 
exposure. Smollett's Hist, of England^ vol. II, 407 ; Mahon's Hist, of 
England, vol. II, 29, 30. 



G70 HISTORY O^ SOUTH CAROLINA 

would be pleased to iiiterceed with L** Stanhope and others for their 
favour upon this occasion to my Nevew and his Faniily.i And T 
propose to your Lady's'p whether it would not be proper to acquaint 
Judge Eyre with the thing and desire his assistance in it. Your 
L'd'sp may observe the advantage likely to be made by the Gentle" 
concerned in the Bahama Islands ; and who have only a Lease from 
us [who?] are the Prop". The Carolinas are a foundation for a 
nnich greater thing, and are of ten times the value : And no man has 
a just title to anything if the Proprietors have not a Title to Caro- 
lina. We make no secret of our being in Treaty for Carolina, but 
we mention no particulars," etc. 

What particular influence Lady Shaftesbury possessed 
is not known, but it was evidently considered important, 
as Mr. Ashley, her brother-in-law, applies to her in this 
letter not only to influence the ministers of the govern- 
ment in regard to Carolina, but to secure for Danson, in 
Ashley's name, a thousand pounds in the next subscrip- 
tion into the South Sea. 

The paper enclosed in this letter shows that the pro- 
posals were for the sale of the province in consideration 
of X 250,000 ; of which, however, X 20,000 were to abate 
in case a charter could not be procured. The Proprie- 
tors reserved the right to subscribe into the joint-stock 
company one-fourth part of the whole, and they were to 
be allowed eight of the managers. 

News of these negotiations had already reached Caro- 
lina. Letters came that the Lords Proprietors had sold 
their charter to three Quakers, who proposed to divide 
the country into shares which were to be stock-jobbed 

1 Though by a most curious coincidence Lord Stanhope died upon the 
same day as his co-secretary Craggs, and died from overexcitement in 
debate in the House of Lords upon these troubles, his character was so 
high, his disinterestedness in money matters so well known, that in the 
South Sea transactions, and even during the highest popular fury, he 
stood clear — not merely of any charge, but even of any suspicion of 
the public. Mahon's Hist, of England, vol. II, 28. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 671 

in Exchange Alley. This report greatly increased the 
indignation of the people of the colony. They were 
shocked at the idea of their being bought and sold as 
part of the South Sea stock. Their anger could not be 
composed. It had been the custom to urge, in extenua- 
tion of the rights and privileges of the Proprietors, that, 
though they were the fellow-subjects of the colonists, 
" some of them were men of best quality in England and 
on that score ought to have a Deference shown between 
them." But that argument was now no longer available 
when their Lordships might be Quakers and '' perhaps the 
meanest of the people."^ P'ortunately for the people of 
Carolina, the " bubble " burst just at this time and the 
proposed sale fell through, so that Lady Shaftesbur}^ had 
no opportunity of exerting the influence her brother-in- 
law seemed to suppose her to possess. 

Messrs. Boone and Barnwell, the agents of the new gov- 
ernment of South Carolina, procured a hearing before the 
Lords Justices Regents in Council, in the absence of his 
Majesty the King, upon which their Excellencies very 
readily came to the conclusion that the Lords Proprietors 
had forfeited their charter, and thereupon they ordered 
the Attorney General to take out a scire facias against 
it. None was, however, issued, nor any further legal pro- 
ceedings taken. 2 There really was no ground for such a 
proceeding. The Proprietors had done nothing to forfeit 
their charter, unless, indeed, any legislation by them with- 
out " the advice assent and approbation of the Freemen " 
of the colony was such a forfeiture. They had neglected 
and misgoverned the province ; but their charter had 
most recklessly given them power to govern as they saw 
fit, provided only that their laws were not in conflict with 

1 Proceedings of the People ; Carroll's Coll.^ vol. II, 190. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 172. 



672 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

those of Great Britain, and were enacted with the consent 
of the freemen of the province. This latter safeguard had 
been utterly disregarded by the Proprietors from the very 
inception of the colony. The Fundamental Constitutions 
had been imposed as far as they could be, and altered again 
and again without the assent of the Commons. True, the 
people had refused to recognize that body of laws, but the 
Proprietors had done all in their power to enforce them. 
The two grounds upon which they were now said to have 
violated the charter were : (1) tlie repeal of certain acts 
which had been assented to by their deputies ; and (2) 
the change in the number of the Council. They had fre- 
quently before this exercised the right of altering the 
laws of the colony without the action of the Commons, 
not only in regard to the Fundamental Constitutions, but 
in that most important matter upon which all laws must 
depend, — the election of the Commons. Of their mere 
will, they had, from time to time, dictated how many rep- 
resentatives should constitute the Commons House, and 
where the election should be held. They were now insist- 
ing that all the elections should be held at Charles Town, 
and had set aside the acts passed by the Assembly elected 
under the act of 1716, and dissolved that body because 
elected at polls in the parishes instead of in the town. In 
1683 they had dissolved the Assembly, because elected at 
Charles Town and not at Charles Town and London as 
they had ordered. If, then, the repeal of the acts of 
1716-17 was a violation of the charter, such violation had 
been continuously repeated in the fifty years of the prov- 
ince. The other ground is still more questionable. The 
only authority for the number of the Council was the Fun- 
damental Constitutions, and the instructions tirst given 
to Governor Sayle and continued to the otlier Governors 
in succession. There was nothing in the charter which 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETARY GOVERNMENT 673 

regulated the number, unless, indeed again, it was that 
this matter should also have been submitted to the ap- 
proval and consent of the Commons. 

But the Royal Government was now watching these 
Proprietary Governments with great jealousy, and seeking 
opportunities of resuming control and setting them aside. 
The Lords Justices, in the absence of the King, who had 
himself lent a favorable ear to the petitions of the people 
of Carolina presented by Mr. Boone, hastened, therefore, 
to avail themselves of this uprising of the people, which 
the Proprietors had been unable to suppress, as requiring 
the intervention of Royal authority. On September 13, 
1720, an Order of Council was made referring it to the 
Attorney General to prepare a commission and instructions 
for the appointment of a Royal Governor for South Caro- 
lina ; and on the 20tli, another order was made appoint- 
ing General Sir Francis Nicholson as such Governor, and 
giving him his instructions for the government of the 
colony. This government was, however, merely provi- 
sionary, and, as such, it was to last for ten years ; for 
there was no little difficulty in settling the rights of the 
Proprietors to the soil, though the government of the 
province liad been taken from them, and this ultimately 
had to be done by purchase under an act of Parliament. 
The history of the administration of the Provisional Gov- 
ernment pertains to that of the Royal Government and 
will be considered hereafter. 

The old disputes as to the title to the original shares of 
the Earl of Clarendon and of Sir William Berkeley were 
difficulties in tlie way of a settlement of the property 
rights of the Proprietors. Mr. Chief Justice Trott had 
gone to England, and it is at least a coincidence, if noth- 
ing more, that, upon his arrival there, the famous suit was 
vigorously })ressed by his cousin, Nicholas Trott of Lon- 

2x 



674 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

don, and his wife, together with her sister, Elizabeth 
Moore, the other daughter of Thomas Amy, against Mary 
Danson, tlie daughter of John Archdale, and her hus- 
band, John Danson. In this suit, the plaintiffs not only 
set up their title to the share of Sir William Berkeley, 
but also asked for an accounting of the sums due Thomas 
Amy for advances made and expenses incurred by him 
in promoting the settlement of the province. 

The Board of Proprietors, it will be remembered, had 
repudiated their deeds to Amy, and had refused to recog- 
nize the titles of Trott and his wife to either share they 
claimed under that person. The one-eighth share of Sir 
AVilliam Berkeley, as it has appeared, had been purchased 
in 1682 from Ludwell and his wife, who had been the 
widow of Sir William, by four of the Proprietors ; to wit, 
the then Duke of Albemarle, the then Lord Carteret, 
the Earl of Craven, and Sir Peter Colleton, who in the 
purchase had made use of Thomas Amy as their trustee, 
to whom the conveyance was made. Disregarding the 
fact that the legal title to this share was, therefore, 
in Amy, as trustee, the four Proprietors had, in 1705, 
sold the share to John Archdale, who, in 1708, had 
conveyed it to John Danson, his son-in-law. Tlie legal 
title to the share doubtless remained outstanding in the 
heirs at law of Thomas Amy. The Board of Proprietors 
had, also, undertaken to escheat the one-eighth share 
originally of the Earl of Clarendon, as Sothell, who had 
purchased it, had died in North Carolina without, as it 
was supposed, leaving an heir at law or a will, and had, 
in 1697, granted it to Amy, whom they appointed to be 
one of the eight hereditary Lords Proprietors. In 1700 
Amy had assigned this share as a marriage portion with 
his daughter to Nicholas Trott of London. Subsequently 
it appeared, however, that James Bertie had found heirs 



UNDER THE PKOPiUETARY GOVERNMENT 675 

at law of Sotliell and had purchased their title. Upon 
this, the Board of Proprietors failed to support their 
escheat and declined to recognize Amy or Trott under 
their grant. 

Trott's claim to the Berkeley share, it must be borne 
in mind, was that while it was true that Amy, from 
whom his wife had inherited in part, as an heir at law, 
had held the share only in trust for those who had pur- 
chased it, he, Amy, had not only rendered valuable ser- 
vices to the Proprietors in procuring immigrants to the 
colony, but had actually expended considerable sums of 
money in their behalf. The money thus advanced, with 
allowance for his time and service, the court had found 
amounted, with interest, to the sum of £2538 lis., which, 
under the well-established doctrine in equity, should be 
reimbursed to Amy's heirs at law before they should be 
called upon to part with the legal title. To this it was 
answered that the purchase of the share from Ludwell 
had been a personal matter between the four Proprietors 
and himself as individuals, and not as the board, and in 
which neither the Earl of Shaftesbury nor his successor in 
that interest, Maurice Ashley, were in any way interested ; 
nor were the heirs of Sothell or their assignee, James 
Bertie. The question between Trott and Bertie was one 
of fact : Were the persons from whom Bertie had pur- 
chased heirs at law of Sothell ? If so, the escheat of the 
Proprietors was clearly void, and Amy had taken nothing 
under their grant which he could convey to Trott. The 
case was a hard one for Amy and those standing in his 
interests ; for he had, doubtless, rendered the services and 
advanced the money. This was the view taken by Lord 
Chancellor Macclesfield, Avho held that Amy had acted for 
the benefit of all the Proprietors, and that each share 
should bear its proportion of the advances made by Amy ; 



676 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and, on the 15tli of January, 1723, he ordered that the 
sum above mentioned should be paid over to Trott and 
his wife, and thereupon they shoukl convey the shares to 
Danson. Danson died during the litigation, and his 
widow, refusing to pay the amount decreed, was com- 
mitted to prison until she did so. The two shares were, 
on the 29th of October, 1724, ordered to be sold. This 
was done on the 16th of February, 1725, whereupon they 
were purchased by one Hugh AVatson for £900 for both 
proprietorships. Watson bought, however, only as trustee, 
and afterwards conveyed one of the proprietorships to 
Henry Bertie, and the other to James Bertie. Mary 
Danson, the widow, after having been confined in prison 
nearly two years because of her refusal to pay as ordered, 
appealed from the decree of Lord Chancellor Macclesfield 
to the House of Lords, before which tribunal she was 
represented by the celebrated lawyers Talbot and Finch. 
The appeal delayed the settlement of this province four 
years, when, at last, the plucky widow won her cause, and 
the decree of Macclesfield was reversed. Nicholas Trott, 
of London, was now also dead,- the long litigation Avas at 
last compromised, and the House of Lords, by a decree, 
carried out a settlement which had been agreed upon. By 
this decree, upon Mary Danson's repaying to Henry 
Bertie the money he had paid for the Berkeley sliare, he, 
Bertie, together with Elizabeth Moor, the surviving heir 
at law of Amy, were required to execute a conveyance of 
the share to Mary Danson. The money thus paid by 
Mary Danson, it was further decreed, should be refunded 
her by Ann Trott out of the assets of Nicholas Trott's 
estate. What consideration Amy's heirs derived from 
the settlement does not appear ; they seem to have lost 
not only all benefit of the services he rendered the Pro- 
prietors at the Carolina Coffee House by drumming for 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 677 

colonists, but the money lie expended there as well. Mary 
Danson must finally have reconveyed the share to Henry 
Bertie, as in the act of surrender he is treated as the 
owner, and paid a share of the purchase money. The 
appeal as to James Bertie was dismissed, and his title to 
the Clarendon-Sothell share thus confirmed. 

Nothing definitely could be done in regard to the civil 
and political condition of the province until the title to 
these shares had been finally adjudicated. In the mean- 
while, the Proprietors, having issued caveats against the 
appointment of a Governor or grants of any offices with- 
out notice to tlieir Lordships, matters were so arranged in 
1721 by his Majesty's act of grace upon his return, that 
the Proprietors acquiesced in the provisional Governor's 
appointment until the complaints of the colonists were 
inquired into and settled.^ The Proprietors continued, 
however, from time to time, to assert their rights under 
the charter. In 1725 they appointed Robert Wright 
Chief Ju^ti^e5^Thoma^J[vmibe^^ General, James 

Stanway Naval officer, Thomas Lowndes Provost Marshal, 
and Edward Bertie Secretary ; ^ at the same time they 
asked the Royal Government to appoint Colonel Samuel 
Hersey Governor, offering to make him a Landgrave, 
annexing thereto four baronies of 12,000 acres each.^ 
The next year Thomas Lowndes purchased of the heirs 
of John Price, deceased, his landgraveship with five 
baronies of 12,000 acres of land each, but surrendered 
the patent and accepted in lieu four single baronies.^ 

The Proprietors -made another effort to recover their 
government. On the 26th of June, 1726, they petitioned 
the King that the provisional Governor might be com- 
manded to assist them in obtaining their just dues and 

1 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. T, 172. 

2 Ihid., 198, 199. 3 /5i-^. 4 Ili^l^ 174. 



G78 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rights ; that he be directed to continue the officers ap- 
pointed by them in their employment ; that they might 
have the power to appoint other officers ; that the pro- 
visional Governor might be instructed to eject those from 
the Proprietors' lands who, after deposing their Governor, 
had committed various excesses thereon, cutting timber, 
etc. They concluded by praying that the petitioners 
might be restored to their ancient inheritance.^ Two 
years after this, however, March 5, 1727-28, they had 
given up hope of restoration and petitioned the King 
praying Iiim to accept an absolute and entire surrender 
of their interest in the province in consideration of the 
sum of <£ 25,000, just one-tenth of what they had hoped to 
have received from the South Sea company. Later, they 
again memorialize the King, stating that about twelve 
months before they had proposed to surrender to his 
Majesty all interest in the province for the sum of 
,£25,000 ; that they had laid their letter before the Attor- 
ney and Solicitor Generals, and that a conveyance was then 
proposed with a covenant that they should consent to an 
act of Parliament. They express their disappointment 
and surprise to learn that the surrender could not be 
made without an act first obtained for the purpose. ^ The 
decree of the House of Lords in the case of Danson v. 
Trott had now, however, removed all difficulty on the 
score of conflicting titles, and an act was passed to carry 
out the agreement. 

To this agreement Lord Carteret was not a party. 
Though he had paid little attention to his duties as 
Palatine or even as a Proprietor, he did not desire to part 
with his right or interest in the province, and declined to 
set any determinate value upon an estate likely to become 
of great value to his family. Lord Carteret's refusal to 
1 Coll Hist. Soc. of So. Oa., vol. I, 173, 2 j^i^l., 175. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 679 

join in the surrender did not, however, prevent its con- 
summation l)y the remaining Proprietors. The act of 
Parliament provided that the seven-eighths shares of 
the surrendering Proprietors — to wit, of Henry Duke 
of Beaufort, William Lord Craven, James Bertie, Henry 
Bertie, Sir John Colleton, Archibald Hutcheson, who held 
in trust for John Cotton the share of Maurice Ashley, 
deceased, and of Joseph Blake, now come of age, of which 
Samuel Wragg was agent — should be vested and settled 
upon Edward Bertie of Gray's Inn, Samuel Hersey of the 
parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Field, Henry Smith of Cav- 
ersham, and Alexius Clayton of the Middle Temple, in 
trust ; that upon the payment to these trustees of the 
sum of c£ 17,500, they should surrender and convey to 
the King these shares ; and that thereupon the same 
become vested in his Majesty. The act also provided for 
the purchase on the part of the Crown of seven-eighths of 
the quit-rents due from the colonists to the Proprietors 
for the additional sum of X5000. 

A¥hile the Royal Government had availed itself of the 
revolution of the people of South Carolina in 1719, and 
had accepted their overthrow of the Proprietors' rule, 
the title to the lands in the province had remained for 
ten years in their Lordships — the eight Proprietors. 
Upon this surrender of the charter by seven of them, 
under the act of Parliament authorizing and accepting 
it, the title to the lands became vested in the King as 
to seven-eighths ; but as Lord Carteret refused to join 
in the surrender, the remaining eighth share or interest 
still continued in him, the King and his Lordship thus 
becoming tenants in common of the lands of the prov- 
inces, both of North as well as of South Carolina. This 
anomalous condition of things continued until 1744, and 
was only put to an end by a change scarcely less anoma- 



680 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

lous. On the ITtli of September of that year, an indent- 
ure was entered into between his Majesty the King of the 
one part, and the Right Hon. John Lord Carteret of the 
other, whereby his Lordship, in consideration of the allot- 
ment to him of all that part of North Carolina lying next 
to the province of Virginia and extending to a line drawn 
from a point six and one-half miles southward of Chick- 
macomack Inlet westward, which tract embraced more 
than half of the province of North Carolina, released his 
interest in all the remainder of the territory embraced in 
the charter of Charles II. It was expressly stipulated, 
however, in this indenture that his Lordship abandoned 
all right or title to political power under that charter. ^ 
The full legal title to all of South Carolina thus did 
not entirely revert and become vested in the King of 
England during the life of his Majesty, King George the 
First. This was not accomplished until in the reign of 
his successor. King George the Second. 

1 Colonial Becords of No. Ca., vol. IV, 655, 663. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

From the accession of James the Second the Royal 
Government had sought occasion or opportunity to set 
aside the viceregal powers of the Proprietors and to 
resume the immediate control of public affairs, not only in 
Carolina, but in all of the Proprietary colonies. Especially 
did it seek to do so in this province. Tlie agitation of 
the question had been pressed by Edward Randolph, Col- 
lector of the Royal customs, and the Board of Trade 
and Plantations had been constantly on the alert to find 
some ground of forfeiture of the Proprietors' charter. 
They had seized upon the occasion of the Church act of 
1704 to advise its suppression, and the Whig House of 
Lords had declared it forfeited because of Lord Gran- 
ville's policy in endeavoring to secure Tory influence in 
the colony by means of the sacramental test. Then upon 
the breaking out of the Indian wars they had encouraged 
Boone and Berresford in their appeals to be taken under 
the Royal protection. The law officers of the Crown had 
twice been called upon to institute proceedings to have 
the charter declared forfeited. But that instrument had 
recklessly given the most extraordinary powers, and it 
was found a very difficult task to point out wherein its 
authority had been exceeded, except in the one instance 
in which the Royal Government seemed as little ijiclined 
to act as the Proprietors themselves ; and that was in the 
violation of the provision of the charter by wliich laws 
could only be enacted "by and Avith tlie advice, assent, and 

681 



682 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

approbation of tlie freemen " of the province. When his 
Majesty received the address of the inhabitants praying 
to be taken under his immediate government without ob- 
jection or rebuke, the Proprietors must have realized that 
their power and influence no longer existed. His Majesty's 
government was, nevertheless, setting a most dangerous 
precedent when, instead of taking the initiative and 
frankly and boldly resuming the government, which it 
may well be doubted if ever the King had the right to 
delegate, it weakly encouraged the people to rise against 
the Proprietors, and accepted their overthrow not as of 
Royal authority, but as the result of revolution. 

The Proprietary Government covered the period of the 
first fifty years of the province of South Carolina. 
Daring this time the colony had been planted and grad- 
ually formed and developed into a community organized 
socially and politically. The Royal Government, upon 
assuming its immediate administration, found it a state 
with a well-digested body of laws ; with the institution 
of African slavery under a formulated code, upon wliich 
was based the beginning at least of a social order of its 
own ; with a staple of food and commerce, the production 
of which in America was limited almost entirely to its 
own territory, and along with the cultivation of which 
negro slaves were improving and nuiltiplying, and their 
masters laying the foundation of fortunes. It found the 
colonists, in spite of the calamities of war, pestilence, and 
flood, and notwithstanding the representations of their 
agents in London, a bold, self-reliant, and prospering 
people. 

The several causes to Avhich we alluded in the intro- 
ductory chapter to this work — to wit, (1) the position 
of the colony as an outpost ; (2) the inevitable contest 
between the rights of the colonists under the charter, on 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 683 

the one hand, and the pretensions of the Proprietors under 
the Fundamental Constitutions, on the other ; (3) the 
introduction of African slavery, and the suitableness of 
the climate to the negro race, together with the find- 
ing of an article of food which could be successfully 
cultivated by negro labor for foreign as well as home 
consumption ; and (4) the consequent formation of a 
social order based uj^on the institution of African sla- 
very following the system brought from Barbadoes — 
had all tended to the formation of the character and 
controlled the development of the people of Carolina. 

The planting of the colony on the Ashley, i.e. the St. 
George's Bay of the Spaniards, had been a direct chal- 
lenge to war ; for, while acknowledging in a general 
way the right of England to her possessions in America, 
Spain had never agreed to a settlement of the line be- 
tween her territory of Florida and that of Carolina 
claimed by Great Britain ; and when King Charles the 
Second by his second charter extended his territorial 
claim from " the River St. Matthias which bordereth 
upon the coast of Florida and within one and thirty 
degrees of northern latitude " — the limit of his first 
grant — to a point " as far as the degrees of twenty-nine 
inclusive northern latitude," thus including in his grant 
the Spanish post of St. Augustine itself, he entailed a 
condition of war upon any colony which might be estab- 
lished under its claims. The Spaniards at St. Augustine 
at once accepted the challenge and made war upon the 
colony on the Ashley from its very inception. France, 
also, advancing her claims to the territory eastAvard of 
the Mississippi and northward of Mobile, was disputing 
the westward limits of Carolina. The Indian tribes, with 
whom the Spaniards and French alike coalesced with 
greater facility than did the English colonists, presented 



684 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

the ready means of continual, though unavowed, hostility, 
and circumscribed the advance of the colony not only by 
open warfare, but by the dread of the lurking savage. 

The first immigrants had not yet settled on the Ashley 
when the Spaniards appeared, giving them notice that the 
colony must fight for its existence. In 1686 they de- 
stroyed the settlement under Lord Cardross, and ravaged 
the country nearly to the fortifications of the town. 
Then had followed, twenty years later, the combined in- 
vasion of the French and Spaniards, which had been so 
successfully repulsed by Sir Nathaniel Johnson. Then 
the Indians, instigated by the French and Spaniards, had 
risen upon the colonists ; but these risings the colonists 
had put down, on the one hand driving the Apalachis 
to the walls of St. Augustine, and on the other, going to 
the assistance of their neighbors in North Carolina, had 
expelled the Tuscaroras from that province. Then in 
1715 had occurred the great Indian War Avhich for a 
time threatened the utter ruin and devastation of the 
colony. But this insurrection, with but little and feeble 
assistance from North Carolina and Virginia, they had 
ultimately suppressed. The colony had thus been in a 
constant state of warfare, and had found able military 
leaders in Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Colonel Daniel, Colonel 
Rhett, Colonel Barnwell, the Moores, — James and his 
two sons, James and Maurice, — and Colonel Chicken. 
The Indian troubles had immediately been followed by 
the blockade of the harbor of Charles Town by the 
pirates, and the gallant and successful expeditions against 
them by Rhett and Governor Robert Johnson. These 
wars and conflicts had given the strong military turn to 
the colonists of Avhich we have spoken, and had devel- 
oped in them a resolute and independent spirit. This 
military turn, the institution of slavery had tended also 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 685 

to develop ; and military organization had become an 
institution not only of defence against foreign invaders 
and hostile Indians, but also of domestic police rendered 
necessary by the constant importation of negroes as sav- 
age, if less warlike than the Indians themselves. 

The attempt to impose Locke's Fundamental Consti- 
tutions upon the colony without " the advice assent and 
approbation of the freemen " of the province had raised 
the question of the constitutional powers of the Proprie- 
tors. From the very outset, when their Lordships had 
attempted to evade the provisions of their charter, re- 
quiring the concurrence of the freemen in the enactment 
of laws, by granting lands only to those who would be 
sworn to submission to them and to their scheme of 
government, and from the time when Will Owen " cen- 
sured the legality " of the first election held in the 
province, the people of Carolina had been learning the 
great political lesson of government by a written con- 
stitution. It was this principle — the essential differ- 
ence between the constitution of tradition and precedent 
of England and the lex scripta of America — that was 
forced upon their attention by the effort of the Proprie- 
tors to impose tliat preposterous system of laws upon the 
colony. Thus it came to pass that tlie first political ques- 
tion asked and debated in Carolina was : " What is written 
in the law ? how readest thou ? " And that question has 
continued to be asked and repeated in all the history of the 
province and State. The revolution of 1719 was upon the 
terms of the charter ; that of 1776 in South Carolina was 
to a considerable extent upon the " Additional Instruction " 
to the Governors of South Carolina, directing the control 
of the House of Commons in the disposition of its public 
funds, the Royal instructions to the Governors having su- 
perseded the charter as the constitution of the province. 



686 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAKOLrNA 

The assertion of the right of nullification in 1832, and of 
secession in 1860, were severally upon the construction of 
the Constitution of the United States. In the discussion 
of the right to impose the Fundamental Constitutions, and 
again in resisting the Church act of 1704, the people were 
learning to contend for a strict construction of the Royal 
charter, the constitution of the province, as alike binding 
upon Proprietors and colonists.^ 

As we have before observed, though the extraordinary 
body of laws proposed by Shaftesbury and Locke Avere 
never constitutionally adopted, and so were never legally 
of force, yet the appointment of Landgraves and Caciques, 
empty, paltry titles though they were, sought alike by 
Puritans and churchmen, and the laying out of seigniories, 
baronies, and manors, doubtless gave an aristocratic 
temper to the government of the colony, which tendency 
was greatly increased by the prosperous implanting of 
the institution of African slavery, thus at once affording 
a peasant class in the place of the '^leet men" of the 
Fundamental Constitutions, who never came. The cli- 
mate agreed with the negroes, who could live in the 
swamps, which were fatal to the white man, and yet was 
not as enervating as that of the negroes' native land, nor 
as that of the tropical islands from which many of them 
were brought. But the institution, possibl}^ would not 
have taken such vigorous root in the soil had there not 
been found an article of commerce which could be suc- 
cessfully cultivated by its labor. 

Before the cultivation of rice in Carolina, Portugal, 
which Avas a great consumer of that article of food, had 
been supplied from Italy. It was the opportunity of this 
market that had greatly induced the people of Carolina 
to devote their attention to the production of this article 

1 See The American Commonirealth (Bryce), vol. I, 413. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 687 

f)f commerce. Their labor and industry were by degrees 
rewarded by an abundant increase of this useful and valu- 
able product, and they had nearly monopolized the Portu- 
guese market when, by an act of 3d and 4th Anne, rice 
was added to the " enumerated commodities," in the 
navigation acts, the exportation of which was restricted 
to Great Britain. This act required the rice of Carolina 
intended for Portugal and Spain to be shipped first to 
England and reexported to those countries. The cost 
of this additional freight, with the other charges of re- 
exportation, was estimated at one-third of its value. This 
cut off Carolina as a competitor with Italy and the East 
Indies, in the markets of southern Europe, and lost them 
that great trade. Thus from Christmas, 1712, to Christ- 
mas, 1717, there were annually imported into England from 
Carolina and other plantations 28,073 hundredweight of 
rice, and from East India, Turkey, and Italy only about 
250 hundredweight. Of the amount imported from Caro- 
lina but 2478 hundredweight were reexported to Portu- 
gal, Spain, and other ports south of Cape Finisterre ; while 
20,458 hundredweight were reexported to Holland, Ger- 
many, and other countries north of that cape ; leaving 
5387 hundredweight for consumption in England.^ It 
was in this matter that the navigation acts of Great Brit- 
ain, the ultimate cause of the American Revolution of 1776, 
pressed most hardly upon Carolina. But though deprived 
of what should have been the chief market of the province, 
yet the trade even to the northern countries of Europe, 
encumbered as it waswith the restriction of reexportation 
charges, was becoming of great value, and drawing a con- 
siderable commerce to Charles Town. This it was that 
attracted the attention of the pirates to the harbor of the 
town which could be so easily watched from Cape Fear. 

^ Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. II, 424. 



688 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

The successful production of rice, and its value as an 
article of commerce, with the manufacture of pitch and 
tar in which negro labor could also be profitably em- 
ployed, tended greatly to the enlargement of the institu- 
tion of African slavery and to strengthen its hold upon 
the people. Indigo and cotton were yet to be found 
equally suited to cultivation by this labor ; but during 
the time of the Proprietary Government, and for a number 
of years after, it was upon rice chiefly that negro labor 
could be employed with great remuneration. Carolina 
rice had already become esteemed as the best in the 
world,! .^ reputation it sustains to this day.^ 

Disputed titles, repeated hurricanes, exhaustion of the 
limited areas of lands in Barbadoes, and its overcrowded 
population had driven many of the people of that island 
to Carolina. These people came with colonial experience, 
and brought with them their negro slaves already broken 
in to labor, and' only wanting a soil and commodity upon 
which to bestow it. They brought also with their slaves 
a system of government and control, and customs and 
manners which the experience of half a century had 
developed. A social order in a great measure already 
formed was thus transferred from Barbadoes to Carolina. 
Unlike the first settlements at Jamestown and PI3 mouth 
Rock, each of which, as we have suggested, had to be built 
up from its very foundation, according to its individual 
circumstances and environments, the emigrants from Bar- 
badoes came with a colonial social system of their own, 
which, beginning a little later than that of Virginia, was 
nearly as old and as fully developed as that of Massachusetts, 
ready for adaptation by the new colonists from England. 

Communication with England at first was by way of 

1 Colonial liecords of No. Ca., vol. IT, 42-4. 
^ South Carolina'' s Eesources, etc., 12. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 689 

Barbacloes, and the first trade of the colony was with that 
island. This intercourse continued, and strongly influ- 
enced the Carolina colony. "The Goose Creek men," 
aofainst whom Ludwell was warned, were the Barbadians 
Moore, Gibbes, Middleton, and others who had settled 
there. It was to Barbadoes that the very able, if unprin- 
cipled. Governor Sothell turned for a code of laws for the 
government of slaves, and the statute book of that island 
furnished the precedent for many others of this province. 
It was from this source, as it has appeared, that the peculiar 
parish system of South Carolina was derived. It was 
upon this basis, with the additional aristocratic tendency, 
encouraged by the partial establishment of the Funda- 
mental Constitutions, that the social order of South Caro- 
lina was formed. 

Some remarkable men had appeared in the public affairs 
of the colony during the Proprietary rule. Sayle, West, 
Smith, Morton, and Blake were men of sober and virtuous 
lives, and of fair capacity in public matters. Their ad- 
ministrations, while subject to the inevitable inconven- 
iences and struggles of a new community, had been, upon 
the whole, wise if not brilliant. Sothell, whatever may 
have been his private character, however disputed his 
right to the government, had shown great political ability 
in his brief administration, particularl}" in his treatment 
of the Huguenot settlers. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, though 
a bigoted Tory, was a man of the highest character, and 
a soldier of reputation. His defence of the province, 
upon the occasion of the French and Spanish invasion, 
in 1706, forms one of the brilliant pages in South Caro- 
lina's history. His son Robert, afterwards to be known 
under the Royal Government as the " Good Governor 
Robert Johnson," had come only at the last struggle of 
the Proprietary Government, and the colony had no op- 
2y 



690 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLIKA 

portunity of appreciating the qualities for which he was 
afterwards beloved, excepting that of his heroic conduct 
in regard to the pirates. The Moores, father and tw^o 
sons, were all men of great force and ambition. Daniel 
and Gibbes were men of ability, and Craven Avas the 
wisest and best Governor of the colony. 

But Trott and Rhett stand out upon the scene conspic- 
uously, as the two who most impressed themselves upon 
the affairs of the time. Rhett was of violent and domi- 
neering disposition, but his repeated and signal services 
to the colony demanded its gratitude and respect, and the 
people forgave his overbearing manner when recollecting 
his gallantry in their defence against invaders and pirates, 
and recognized his earnest zeal for the public welfare, 
despite the imperiousness of his conduct.^ Trott was an 
extraordinary man. His learning for the times was pro- 
found ; his ability great ; his industry indefatigable ; but 
his character corrupt, though a devoted churchman, and 
as learned in theology as in law. No one can read his 
charge to the grand jury upon witchcraft and doubt his 
sincere conviction upon the subject ; nor is it easy to 
believe that one so familiar with the Holy Scriptures as 
liis charges, especially that in regard to witchcraft and 
tliat to poor Stede Bonnet, proved him to be could be alto- 
gether regardless of their teaching ; and yet he is more 
remembered to-day for his corruption than for the really 
great services he rendered, not only the province of his 
day, but the State which was to succeed it. 

Trott may truly be said to have been the father of law 
and of the courts in South Carolina. He Avas not only 
the first judge, but the first lawyer of whose professional 

1 Colonel Khett died suddenly, in 1721, from apoplexy, as lie was pre- 
paring for his departure for Barbadoes, of which, it is said, he had been 
appointed Governor. Johnson's Traditions, 232. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 691 

career we have any knowledge. There is, indeed, no rec- 
ord of any lawyer in the colony before his arrival. The 
absurd provision of the Fundamental Constitutions, declar- 
ing it to be a base and vile thing to plead for money or 
reward, and prohibiting it, though never constitutionally of 
force, was not encouraging to the coming of any of the pro- 
fession. It is quite certain that none but Trott came until 
the attempt to impose those provisions was abandoned. 

Upon the hrst settlement of the province, as we have 
seen, rough justice had been administered by the Grand 
Council. In 1682 the Proprietors presented a system of 
judicature, to consist of a County Court, of a Chief Judge 
or Sheriff, and four justices, who were to have jurisdiction 
of all civil causes and of all causes criminal for offences 
whereof the penalty was less than death ; of an Assize 
Court, consisting of an itinerant justice together with the 
members of this County Court, and of a Governor and 
Council, who were to exercise general appellate jurisdic- 
tion of all causes from the County Court and Assizes and 
general original jurisdiction in chancery.^ We find fre- 
quent allusions to these courts, but no record of their 
proceedings. The Assize Court went upon no circuit ; no 
general court was held outside of Charles Town. The 
first person who was Sheriff' or Chief Judge, of wdiom 
we know, was Robert Gibbes. Barnard Schinkingh suc- 
ceeded him, but wdien we do not know, except that he 
had been in office before 1691, when he was restored to it, 
having been removed by Sothell.^ It was one of the 
grievances of Avhich the Commons complained, in 1692, 
that the office of High Sheriff and Cliief Judge of Pleas 
was lodged in the same person, and another, that inferior 

1 Administration of Justice in So. Ca. (Henry A. M. Smith) ; Charles- 
ton Year Book, 1885 (Courteuay), 317. 

2 Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. 1, 112. 



692 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

courts undertook to pass upon the validity of laws. In 
1698 the Proprietors had sent out Mr. Bohun, a Justice of 
the Peace in England, — a layman, — to be Chief Justice ; 
but he had died after but a year of troubled service, and 
had been succeeded by James Moore, whom Governor 
Blake had temporarily appointed, — an appointment he 
w^as authorized to make upon the death or absence of 
Chief Justice Bohun. ^ Moore was also a layman, and 
without either the literary ability or the limited legal ex- 
perience of Bohun. In 1702 Trott, the first professional 
lawyer to sit as a judge, was commissioned as Chief Jus- 
tice ; 2 but in 1709 he was made to give place to another 
layman, Robert Gibbes, who had before been Sheriff or 
Chief Judge, and of whom the Proprietors then wrote " a 
very ill character had been received " ; the same Robert 
Gibbes who afterwards secured the election as Governor 
upon Colonel Tynte's death. Trott was again made 
Chief Justice in 1713, and continued such until the revo- 
lution of 1719. In 1694 an elaborate system of fees was 
established by an act entitled '^A^i act for ascertaining 
Puhlique Officers Fees,'" in which table fees are prescribed 
for "The Judges of Pleas " and for "The officers belong- 
ing to the said Court," also for " the Attorneys Fees be- 
longing to the Court of Pleas," and for the Provost 
Marshal ; ^ which table was revised in 1698.* These acts 
imply that there was, at their respective dates, an organ- 
ized Court of Pleas ; but beside an allusion by Archdale, 
writing several years after in his usual loose style, that 
during his administration, to wit, 1695, he had continued 
in office all judges alid militia officers, we know nothing 
of the courts prior to the coming of Chief Justice Bohun 
and Attorney General Trott in 1698. 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. IT, 207. 2 ji^i^^ Appendix, 451. 

3 Statutes of So. Ca., vol. II, 86. 4 n^ia,, 143. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 693 

From this time until the overthrow of the Proprietary^ 
Government, the system of judicature in the province was 
as follows : — 

1. Justices of the Peace, for the arrest of offenders and 
the trial of small causes, civil and criminal, who were 
paid by fees. 

2. A court of general jurisdiction, called the Court of 
Common Pleas, composed of a Chief Justice and four 
assistants, and one of general jurisdiction, called the 
Court of Sessions, composed of the same. The Chief Jus- 
tice received a salary of ^60. 

3. The Governor and Council, who constituted an Ap- 
pellate Court in civil and criminal cases, from the Chief 
Justice's Court, and who also had general original juris- 
diction in chancery. The Governor was paid a salary of 
^200, and in addition was entitled to receive certain fees. 

4. An appeal lay from the Governor and Council to 
the Lords Proprietors in England. 

5. A Court of Admiralty, having general admiralty and 
maritime jurisdiction, and jurisdiction in case of maritime 
crimes by special commission. The judge and officers of 
this court derived their commissions from the King, and 
an appeal lay to the Privy Council or Lords of the Admi- 
ralty in England. The Judge of the Court of Admiralty 
was paid by fees for the items of his services. 

6. The Governor of the province exercised the duties 
and powers of an Ordinary. ^ 

Trott remained in England during the Provisional 
Government under Sir Francis Nicholson, wliile the Pro- 
prietors were negotiating the terms of the surrender 
of their charter, busying himself with that negotiation, 

1 Administration of Justice in So. Ca. (H. A. M. Smith) ; Year Book 
City of Charleston, 1885, 318 ; A Letter from So. Ca., 1710 (second ed., 
1732)," 27. 



694 HISTORY^ OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

and in his effort to have his codification of the laws 
of South Carolina printed, and also another work, — his 
Explicatmi of the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament^ — 
intriguing the meanwhile to be restored to his office 
of Chief Justice.^ It was not until some years after 
(1736) that his codification was published ; but the 
Royal Government found the laws of the province 
collected and arranged to its hand by this learned, if 
eccentric, and corrupt judge. Upon the final establish- 
ment of the Royal Government Trott returned to Charles 
Town, but lived in retirement in his house in Cumberland 
Street, devoting himself to his work on the Explication^ 
and it was said had finished one large volume in folio 
ready for the press when he died January 27, 1740. 
He was buried in St. Philip's churchyard, as was 
also Colonel Rhett. He had been made a Doctor of 
Laws and was then spoken of as Dr. Trott. ^ 

The peculiar parish system brought over from Barba- 
does in 1716 remained, for the lower part of the State, 
until the overthrow of the government in the late war 
in 1865. This system, it must be observed, was purely 
an election S3'stem. The parish was made the election 
precinct and elections for members of the Assembly — 
the only election of civil officers until after the Revolu- 
tion of 1776 — Avere held at the parish church, and 
conducted by the churchwardens. But save legiti- 
mate ecclesiastical duties, such as that of caring for tlie 
poor, the vestries had none.^ To provide for the poor, 

1 Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 243-245. 

2 South Carolina Gazette, February 2, 1740. 

3 Subsequently, during the Royal Government, municipal duties were 
performed by the vestry and wardens of St. riiilip's Parish, Charlestown, 
and municipal boards elected at the church door on Easter Monday, to- 
gether with the wardens and vestrymen. See A Sketch of St. Philip's 
Church, Charleston, South Carolina, by Edward McCrady; Yeai' Book 
City of Charleston (Smyth), 1897. 



UNDER THE PKOPKIETAKY GOVERNMENT 695 

however, these church officers had power to assess and 
levy a tax. The only other elections held in the 
province were those for rectors, vestrymen, and wardens 
of the cliurches, who were chosen, as we have seen, by the 
inhabitants of the several parishes that were of the 
Church of England. The vestries in South Carolina 
did not, therefore, take the place of the township officers 
of other provinces. There was no local government. The 
province was not supposed to be too large for the 
administration of a single government by Governor and 
General Assembly. 

It is difficult correctly to estimate the exact moral and 
religious character of the people of the province as a 
whole at this time. It was a period in the history of the 
world when, perhaps, religion was more a matter of politi- 
cal and religious faith than of moral personal conduct. 
The community was still new ; a generation had scarcely 
yet been born and passed away upon its soil.^ Advent- 
urers from all parts of the civilized world were coming 
and going, and some remaining. It was this feature, 
doubtless, which had so impressed Commissary Gideon 
Johnson on his first arrival, but the people generally were 
by no means of the character he described. The simple 
piety of the French Huguenots cannot be doubted, nor 

1 111 the old " Circular Church," that of the Independents or Congrega- 
tionalists, — " White Meeting," — which was burned during the late war, 
there was a monumental tablet to Mr. Robert Tradd, which stated that he 
was the first male child born in Charles Town and that he died on the 
30th of June, 1731, in the fifty-second year of his age. Ramsay's Hist, 
of So. Ca.^ vol. I, 2; Yeai' Book City of Charleston (Courtenay), 1882, 
392. Tradd must therefore have been born in 1679. 

The author of The Olden Time of Carolina states that George Smith, 
the second son of Landgrave Thomas Smith, was born in old Charles 
Town, west of the Ashley, in 1672. Our Forefathers : Their Homes and 
their Churches (1860), 49. But this is a mistake. The lirst Landgrave 
Smith did not arrive in the province probably before 1687. 



696 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

can the earnest zeal of the Puritan class of which Land- 
graves Smith, Morton, and Blake were the leaders and 
representatives. To the tyrannical and venal Trott, it is 
not probable tliat the church, the temple of the Lord, was 
more sacred than the court, the temple of justice, which 
he at once adorned with his learning and polluted with 
his corruption. Rhett's violent temper and hectoring 
disposition Avas little controlled by Christian grace, but 
he Avas as devoted to the service of his church as heroic 
in the defence of his people, and spent freely of his time 
and means in her support. He was the willing almoner 
of the bounty of the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel, and upon the altar of St. Philip's Church there 
still stand the silver tankard, chalice, paten, and alms plate, 
Avith this engraved on them " The gift of Col. Wm. Rhett to 
the Church of St. Philips Charles Totvn South Carolina.''^ 
Sir Nathaniel Johnson Avas an earnest if over-zealous 
churchman, Avith the habits of a soldier, ready to support 
Granville in his high-handed measures, Avithout pausing 
to consider the constitutionality of his methods. 

We do not know, it is true, of the performance of a 
church service beyond the limits of Charles ToAvn before 
1700 ; nor is there record of any church out of the toAvn 
before 1703, Avhen the planters on Cooper River built, by 
private subscription and the liberal assistance of Sir Na- 
thaniel Johnson, a small church on Pompion Hill in that 
neighborhood, though Original Jackson and Meliscent, his 
Avife, had given a lot for such a purpose, as is supposed, as 
early as 1681. It was a false and empty pretence — that 
declared in the first charter that the grantees Avere in- 
fluenced and excited in their application for it by ''a 
laudable and pious zeal for the propagation of the Chris- 
tian faith." No effort Avas made by the first Proprietors, 
in fulfilment of their power, " to build and found churches 



UNDER THE PKOPIilETAKY GOVEllNMENT 697 

chappels and oratories in convenient and fit places." Be- 
side announcing the somewhat inconsistent provisions of 
the Fundamental Constitutions, by which, on the one 
hand, they laid down a great scheme of religious freedom, 
and on the other, set up, as tliey Avere bound to do under 
their charter, the Church of England as the established 
church of the province, the Proprietors did little or noth- 
ing to promote and advance Christianity in the colony. 
A stock corporation intent only upon immediate pecun- 
iary profit, instead of exerting their great powers to con- 
vert the Indian savage, they gave '' the privilege," to use 
their own language, of selling Indian captives as the 
cheapest means of '' encouraging the soldiers of their in- 
fant colony." From the beginning, it is the colonists 
themselves who appeal to the Proprietors and to the 
Bishop of London for clergymen to be sent to minister to 
them. There were earnest Christian churchmen in the 
province before the end of the seventeenth century, ready 
to give of their substance for the establishment and sup- 
port of their church. Original Jackson and Meliscent, 
his wife, early as 1680-81, really and truly "excited with 
a pious zeal for the propagation of the Christian religion 
and tlie divine service according to the liturgy of the 
Church of England," gave land " with the improvements 
thereon" for the establishment of a church, presumably 
upon the Wando ; and Affra Coming, for '' the love and 
duty" she had and OAved to the churches as established 
in the kingdom of England, of AAdiich she professed her- 
self a dutiful daughter, in 1698 made the munificent 
grant of seventeen acres adjoining the town for the sup- 
port of its minister. Botli Jonathan Amory and Martha, 
]iis Avife, made small bequests for the same purpose. Nor 
Avere generous grants and bequests confined to the mem- 
bers of the Church of England. Isaac Mazyck, Avho ar- 



698 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

rived in 108(3, contributed largely to the building of the 
Huguenot Church, gave liberally towards its support dur- 
ing his life, and by his will bequeathed XlOO sterling for 
the support of its minister. Cezar Moze, in 1687, from 
his little store, bequeathed his mite to assist in building 
a house of worship in the neighborhood of his plantation 
on the eastern branch of the Cooper River ; ^ while Gov- 
ernor Blake, who, though a Puritan and a dissenter, 
possessing a liberal spirit towards all Christians, from his 
larger means, on June 20, 1695, gave XIOOO sterling to 
the Independent or Congregationalist Church. ^ Frances 
Simonds, a widow, gave, in 1701, the lot of land on which 
the old White Meeting House Avas built, and, in 1707, 
added another lot.^ In 1699 William Elliott gave the lot 
on which the Baptists erected their church,* and Mrs. 
lilake, the wife of the Governor, contributed liberally to 
the adornment of St. Philip's, the English church.^ 

If it be conceded that the Church of England, estab- 
lished by the charter of the province, had not been suffi- 
ciently alive to her duties prior to the end of the century, 
it must be remembered that from the very nature of her 
government her people in the colony were in a great 
measure dependent upon the Proprietors and the church 
at home for the means of carrying on her services and 
work. No episcopal ordination was needed for the Bap- 
tists nor for the Consfreofationalists — ministers could be 
raised up and set apart from their own bodies in this 
country. None but a regularly ordained clergyman could 
fully officiate for the English church ; and for such, as 

1 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 108. 

^ Tablet before referred to. See Year Book, 1882, 292. 
3 Howe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 131, note, 147, note. 

* Hist. First Baptist Ch. , 55 ; Year Book City of Charleston (Courte- 
nay), 1881, 316. 

SDalcho's Ch. Hist., 26. 



UNDER THE PKOPRIETAKY GOVERNMENT 699 

there was no bishop in America, the colonists were de- 
pendent upon the Proprietors and the Bishop of London. 
But the neglect of the Church of England, to whatever 
extent that may be legitimately charged, ended with the 
century. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
was then organized in England, and South Carolina was 
its first field. With the aid of that society there were, 
as we have seen, in 1710, eight ministers of the Church 
of England and two French Protestant ministers who had 
conformed to the provisions of the act of 1706 in the use 
of the liturgy of the church and accepted support from 
the public treasury ; one other French Protestant minis- 
ter, who adhered to the discipline of the French church ; 
five British Presbyterians or Independents ; one Anabap- 
tist and a small body of Quakers. There had been some 
changes by arrivals, deaths, and removals in the nine suc- 
ceeding years ; but the number of the clergy remained 
about the same, constituting a clerical force of one clergy- 
man to about 500 whites and 600 negroes, a number which 
would be held, even in these days, a fair proportion. 

If the complaint of the dissenters that Episcopacy had 
waited till the colony had increased in wealth and num- 
bers, and then had come much in the spirit of proselytism 
and dictation, as the national and favored church,^ was 
not altogether without foundation, it must, on the other 
hand, be remembered that the founder of the Presbyte- 
rian Church in South Carolina was but providentially cast 
upon the shores of the province, his coming having been 
neither of his own will nor at the instance of the members 
of his church. So, too, the Baptist minister had come as 
an exile driven from New England, seeking the religious 
indulgence promised in the Royal charter to those who 
could not conform to the church thereby established. It 

1 Plowe's Hist. Fresh. Ch., 172. 



700 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

remains, however, to the honor of the dissenters in the 
province, that, though themselves taxed to support the 
established church, they maintained their own churches 
by voluntary offerings in addition to the tax for religious 
purposes imposed by the government. 

The high character of the clergy of the Church of 
England in the province was doubtless owing in a great 
measure to the care in their selection by the Society for 
tlie Propagation of the Gospel. Nor did the society 
desert other missionaries whom it sent. When these 
with their flocks were driven before the tomahawk and 
scalping knife into the town, the society wrote at once to 
Colonel Rhett, their agent, to give to each, as a gratuity, 
half a year's salary, and to extend the same relief to their 
schoolmasters. Nor did the society restrict their benevo- 
lence to their own missionaries, but instructed their agent 
to present to each clergyman in the province who had 
suffered in the general calamity, though not in the service 
of the society, a sum not exceeding £30.^ 

If Ramsay's statement that the early settlers had no 
sooner provided shelter and the necessaries of life than 
they adopted measures for promoting the moral and lit- 
erary improvement of themselves, and particularly of the 
rising generation,^ is somewhat strained and overdrawn, 
it is nevertheless remarkable that, notwithstanding the 
constant political turmoil, the varied disasters which be- 
fell the colony, the continual apprehensions of war, and 
the actual repeated invasions of the province, so much 
was conceived and attempted in these respects. But few 
of the very first settlers, as may well be supposed, brought 
with them wives or children. The necessity for schools, 
therefore, did not begin for some years after the founding 

1 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 97. 

2 Ramsay's Hist, of So. Ca., vol. II, 353. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 701 

of the colony. But before the seventeenth century had 
closed, the number of children born and brought here 
began to demand schools and religious instruction beyond 
the resources of the inhabitants. That many of the colo- 
nists were educated and accustomed to literary pursuits, 
there is abundant evidence.^ Indeed, as early as 1698, 
but thirty-five years after the first charter of the prov- 
ince, but twenty-eight years after the founding of the 
colony, and thirty-two years before Franklin formed " The 
Junto," — the debating society out of which grew the 
Philadelphia Library, which he claimed to be the mother of 
all American subscription libraries, — a free public library 
had been established in Cliarles Town. The first act 
upon the subject, i.e. that of 1700, it is true, has not been 
preserved, but its enactment, and the establishment of the 
library under it, is definitely ascertained by the recital of 
the Church act of 1712, as well as the existence of the 
library at that time. We find, also, in the journals of the 
Commons on the 17th of June, 1703, that Nicholas Trott 
informed the House that Dr. Bray had sent sundry books 
as a further addition to the " Public Library," '' together 
with additional books for a layman''s library," and the 
thanks of the House were ordered to be transmitted to 
Dr. Bray by Trott. On the following 7th of May the 
Public Treasurer was ordered to pay Edward Moseley 
for transcribing the catalogue of the library books the 
sum of X5 15s. 2 This is believed to have been the first 
public library in America. 

Lawson, who wrote in 1709, states that from the fact 
that the people lived in a town, they had drawn " ingen- 
ious people of most sciences Avhereby they had Tutors 
among them that educate their Youth a la mode.'' The 

1 Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 231, qaoting Journals. 

2 Commons Journal. 



702 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

matter of education had, as we have seen, engaged the 
attention of the Assembly, and that by the act of 1710 
commissioners had been appointed to receive legacies 
which had then been bequeathed for founding a free 
school. An appeal had also been made to the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel to assist in its establish- 
ment, as the best means of improving the spiritual as Avell 
as the temporal interests of the people. The society had 
answered this appeal, and in 1711 a school had been estab- 
lished, under the care of the Rev. William Guy. The 
school, it is true, was not altogether a free school, though 
it was so called ; for only a limited number of scholars 
were educated without pay. But still it was an attempt 
in that direction. It was at this school that the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel first assisted in the edu- 
cation of the children of the colonists, charging its teach- 
ers that they were to take special care of the manners of 
their scholars, both in and out of school, teaching them to 
abhor lying and falsehood, to avoid evil speaking, and to 
love truth and honesty. The Rev. Mr. Guy remained 
but a short time in charge of this school, as he was 
removed in the same year to the cure of St. Helena, 
Beaufort. He was succeeded as master of it by the Rev. 
Thomas Morritt, who remained in charge until 1728, 
when he became rector of Prince George's Parish. The 
free school in connection with St. Philip's continued until 
broken up by the Revolution of 1776.^ 

1 Professor McMaster, in his Hist, of the United States (vol. I, 27), 
has made the reckless statement that in the Southern States education 
was almost wholly neglected, hut nowhere to such an extent as in South 
Carolina. ""In that colony,'''' he says, '^ prior to 1730 no such thing as 
a grammar school existed. Between 1731 and 1776 there were but five. 
During the Revolution there were none.'''' The author of this work has 
elsewhere fully refuted this statement. See Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca. , 
vol. IV, " Education in South Carolina prior to and during the Revolu- 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 703 

The effect of the Indian wars had been rather to extend 
than to diminish the territory of the colony. The settlers 
had, at the first outbreak, been driven into the town, but 
as the Indians were defeated, the lands occupied by them 
in the immediate neighborhood of the colony were taken 
in and settled. Thus, as Ave have seen, the Yamassee 
lands were appropriated to new settlers. To protect 
these, a small fort of ten guns was built at Port Royal ; 
another at Pallizado Fort, with five or six small guns ; 
another at Savano Town, 140 miles from Charles Town, 
near the present site of the city of Augusta, which became 
known as Fort Moore ; and another, " towards the head of 
the Santee," that is, at what was called the Congaree, — 
in all of which places there were about 100 men, in garri- 
sons divided into companies.^ 

Until 1717 there were few houses at Charles Town out- 
side the fortifications, the lines of which have been before 
described. In that year the fortifications on the north, 
west, and south sides were dismantled and demolished to 
enlarge the town, which now began to spread out on the 
north across the creek, which ran where the market now 
stands, and on the west beyond what is now Meeting 
Street. There are but three buildings in the city of 
Charleston of which there is any historical authority for 
believing that they were built during the Proprietary Gov- 
ernment.2 Dr. Shecut, in his essay on the topography of 

tion." Since writing that paper he has collected and now has in his 
hands copies of 412 advertisements relating to education, taken from the 
Gazettes published in Charles Town between 1732 and 1774, and has a 
list of the names of nearly 200 persons engaged in teaching as tutors, 
schoolmasters, or schoolmistresses during that time. 

1 Colonial Eecords of No. Ca., vol. IT, 422. 

2 There is a tradition that a small brick house of but two stories, still 
standing on Church Street, adjoining the lot on tlie southwest corner of 
Church and Tradd streets, is one of the very oldest in the city, and that 



704 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Charles Town, wiitteu in 1719, states that among the first 
brick houses built in the town was that in Cumberland 
Street, immediately opposite to which at that time was the 
Episcopal Methodist Church (where now stands the Cham- 
pion Cotton Press), which was the residence of Chief Jus- 
tice Trott, and next to which was an old magazine.^ This 
latter, which also still stands, was doubtless the magazine 
of Carteret Bastion, which stood about where Cumberland 
and Meeting streets now intersect. Dr. Johnson, in his 
Traditions^ states that Colonel Rhett's family mansion, 
at the time of his death, was the still excellent building 
now known as No. 60 Hazel Street. ^ Dr. Johnson is cor- 
roborated in this by a map published according to an act 
of Parliament, June 9, 1739, in which this house is repre- 
sented as standing upon a tract of land marked as Colonel 
Rhett's. If this was Colonel Rhett's residence, the build- 
ing was in all probability erected during the Proprietary 
rule ; for Colonel Rhett died January 14, 1722, a little 
more than two years after the overthrow of that govern- 
ment. A watch or guard house stood at the end of Broad 
Street, where the old Exchange or Postoffice now stands.^ 
A few plantation residences built during the Proprie- 
tary Government still remain standing. The two oldest 
of these were both the properties of Landgrave Smith. 

the Council of the province held their meetings in its rooms; but we 
have been able to find nothing on record in regard to it. 

1 Sliecut's Essays, 6. The house and magazine still stand. The house 
unfortunately lost a story in the great fire of December, 1861. It had 
escaped all the previous disastrous conflagrations of the town and city ; 
but in this fire it was gutted, and when rebuilt upon the old still sub- 
stantial walls, the third story was left off. It is now the residence of 
Miss Whitney. It is to be observed, however, as discrediting the an- 
tiquity of this house, that it does not appear in a map published by 
Parliament in 1739, but on the contrary its site is left as vacant. 

2 Johnson's Traditions, 232. 

3 Shecut's Essays, 4; The Olden Time of Carolina (Mrs. Poyas), 17. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 705 

The first was his residence on Back River, a branch of 
the Cooper, and is believed to have been the first brick 
house in Carolina. Landgrave Smith afterward, in 1693, 
removed to " Yeamans Hall," or '' Yeomans Hall," on 
Goose Creek, which some traditions would identify with 
the '' country house " which Sir John Yeamans built when 
he came into the province, and to which he retired when 
the people would not " salute him governor," though he 
was a Landgrave ; ^ others that it was the property of 
Lord Craven.*^ There is little probability that either of 
these traditions is true. Sir John could scarcely, in the 
time he was in the province, have built such a house ; and 
Lord Craven was never in the colony at all. But, how- 
ever built, the house has been in the family of Landgrave 
Smith for more than two hundred years, and, though much 
injured by the earthquake in 1886, still stands. It was 
surrounded by an earthwork, and had portholes in its 
walls, as a defence against the Indians ; in the cellar was 
a deep well for supplying the family or garrison with 
water in case of a siege, and a subterranean passage, 
whose entrance can still be seen, led out under the gar- 
den to the creek, where boats were kept moored. There 
is in this old mansion a secret chamber, a small space 
between two walls with a sliding panel leading into it, 
which was used as a hiding-place for valuables, not only 
during the times of the Proprietary Government, but dur- 
ing the American Revolution when the family silver was 
safely secreted there. This house is but two stories high. 
The walls are stuccoed, and in large, old-fashioned panels.^ 
The piazza or gallery which is now on its front face is 

1 Harper's Magazine, No. CCCVII, December, 1876, 16. 

2 The Olden Time of Carolina (Mrs. Poyas), 19. 

8 Harper'' s 3Iagazine, supra ; llie Olden Time of Carolina ; A Day on 
Cooper Biver (Irving), 20 
2z 



706 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

probably a late addition, as the piazzas now so common in 
the South were not generally introduced into Carolina 
until the end of the last or before the beginning of the 
present century. ^ ''Mulberry," or "Mulberry Castle," 
on the west side of Cooper River, was built in 1714. The 
land on which the house stands was purchased from Sir 
John Colleton by Thomas Broughton, afterwards the first 
Lieutenant Governor under the Royal Government. This, 
too, it is said, had loopholes for musketry, with bastions 
at the four corners. It was used also for the purpose of 
defending the settlers in the vicinity against incursions 
of Indians.^ 

The house built, in 1704, by Stephen Bull, who came out 
with the very first colonists, known as " Ashley Hall," 
and after his death the residence in succession of the two 
William Bulls, his son and grandson, who for more than 
thirty years were Lieutenant Governors of the province 
under the Royal Government, and often the administra- 
tors of "its affairs, — a house which was the scene of many 
historic incidents, — remained standing until burned in 
1865, at the close of the late war.^ It is remarkable that 
the houses built by two of the early settlers in South Caro- 
lina should so long have remained in existence. 

1 The first mention of a piazza we have found is in a letter of Edward 
Rutledge to Captain Simons, dated September 1, 1782. See Gibbes's 
Document, Hii^t. of the Am. J?ev., 218. No piazzas appear upon any of 
the pictures of buildings of the time save this. 

'^ A Day on Cooper River (Irving), 13. 

3 Upon the evacuation of Charleston during the late war, in February, 
1865, every house on the west bank of the Ashley — the place of the first 
settlement of the colony — was burned by the Federal besieging forces 
which came from James Island. But three houses were left standing 
in the whole of St. Andrew's Parish between the Ashley and Stono. 
One of these — Drayton Hall — was spared, it is said, because of Commo- 
dore Percival Drayton of the United States Navy. Anticipating this 
destruction, the last of the Bulls to reside in Ashley Hall, the Hon. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 707 

Several churcli buildings erected during the Proprietary 
period in the country remain in whole or in part. The 
oldest entire building 3"et standing is St. James, Goose 
Creek. It was built during the incumbency of the Rev. 
Francis Le Jau, D.D. (1707-17), probably in 1711, and 
remains, save for repairs after the earthquake of 1886, 
just as it was when first erected. It is built of brick, 
cherub heads adorn the windows, and the high pulpit, 
marble tablets of the Commandments, Creed, and Lord's 
Prayer, are surmounted by the Royal arms, — a decoration 
which preserved the little temple from desecration and 
destruction during the Revolutionary War.^ The floor 
is of stone, seventeen mahogany pews fill it, and there is a 
gallery across one end. Memorial tablets and hatchments 
adorn the walls. ^ The walls of the old White Meeting 
House, at Dorchester, erected in 1700, still remains. The 
building was burned during the Revolution, but was 
rebuilt in 1794.^ Near the same, the old tower of St. 
George's, Dorchester, built in 1719, still stands. The 
church was built of brick, seventy feet long by thirty wide, 
in cruciform shape, with Gothic windows, and the tower, 

William Izard Bull, who, like his great-grandfather and grand -uncle, 
had been a Lieutenant Governor of the State, declaring that the invaders 
should never enter the mansion of his forefathers, himself set fire and 
burned it to the ground. 

1 "These arms v^ere destroyed by the earthquake of 1886, and their 
exact restoration seemed impossible. But a few years before, a lady now 
deceased, the daughter of one of South Carolina's greatest scientists . . . 
(the late Professor John McCrady), had painted a copy in oils for the use 
of a New England society. This was obtained, and from it the restoration 
was made as it now stands." — Historical Discourse, by Rev. Robert 
Wilson, D.D., at St. James, Goose Creek, on Sunday, April 12, 189(3. 
Appendix to Year Book City of Charleston, 1895 (John F. Ficken, 
Mayor). 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 24 ; Harper's Magazine, No. CCCVII, December, 
1875. 

•^ Howe's Hist, of Fresh. Ch., 507 ; Harper's Magazine, as above. 



708 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

which once lield a ring of bells, shows how beautiful, com- 
plete, and church-like the little sanctuary must have been.^ 
The second St. Philip's Church, that built under the act of 
1710, upon the site of the present church (burned in 
1835), the beauty of which was so extolled by Edmund 
Burke, was just nearing its completion, and so must be 
attributed to the period of the Proprietary Government. 
Its rising walls had been blown down in the great storm 
of 1716. It was opened on Easter Sunday, 1723, during 
the Provisional Government of Sir Francis Nicholson. 
Burke described it as " spacious and executed in a very 
handsome taste, exceeding everything of that kind we have 
in America." 2 

Notwithstanding the very genteel entertainments that 
Lawson tells that the country gentlemen extended to 
strangers, society in the colony was, at the end of the 
Proprietary Government, still in rather a primitive condi- 
tion. Some account of it, in 1700, has come down to us 
from tradition as given by Landgrave Smith. In his 
courting days, he said, young girls received their beaus 
at three o'clock, having dined at twelve, expecting them 
to withdraw about six o'clock, as many families retired 
to bed at seven in the winter, and seldom extended their 
sitting in summer beyond eight o'clock, their fathers hav- 
ing learned to obey the curfew toll in England. ^ The 
rooms in those days. Landgrave Smith said, were all 
uncarpeted, the rough sides of the apartments remaining 
the natural color of whatever wood the house chanced 

1 Dalcho's Ch, Hist., 346 ; Harpefs Magazine, as above. 

2 Dalcho's Ch. Hist., 123 ; quoting Account of European Settlements 
in America, vol. II, 258. 

3 Labat's account is that in Bridgetown, Barbadoes, they dined at two 
o'clock, and their dinner lasted four hours. Perhaps the cavaliers did 
tlie same in Charles Town and at their country seats, upon occasions of 
formal entertainments. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 709 

to be built of. Rush-bottomed chairs were usual. ^ It 
must be remembered, however, that Landgrave Smith 
belonged to the party in which the stiff and rigid morals 
of the Puritan Avere cultivated, and Hewatt tells that 
these were made the object of ridicule by their neigh- 
bors. ^ Lawson describes the gentlemen seated in the 
country as very courteous, living very nobly in their 
houses, and giving very genteel entertainments. The 
Swiss gentleman who wrote to his friend at Bern, in 
1710, so favorable an account of the province, says that 
no people were more hospitable, generous, and willing 
to do good offices to strangers ; that every one was ready 
to entertain them freely with the best they had. Morose- 
ness and sullenness of temper, so common in other places, 
was rare among them. Though so happily situated that 
nobody was obliged to beg for food, yet the charity of 
the inhabitants was remarkable in making provisions for 
the poor. Those born of European parents, he says, Avere 
for the most part very temperate, and had generally an 
aversion to excessive drinking. He could not call to 
mind above two or three addicted to that vice.^ 

Besides these glimpses, we have little to guide us 
historically in regard to the condition of society during 
the Proprietary rule. In all probability, the people were 
as much divided in their habits and manners as in their 
politics, and the division ran along the same lines of 
churchmen and Puritans. 

(3ne of the distinguishing features in the Proprietary 
Governments of Carolina and New Jersey, from those 
of others, was in the number of Proprietors. The grant 
to the Earl of Carlisle, of Barbadoes, in 1624-29, to Lord 

^ The Olden Time of Carolina^ 41. 

2 Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 77. 

3 A Letter from So. Ca., etc., 1710 (second ed., 1782), 42. 



710 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

Baltimore, of Mainland, in 1632, to Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, of Maine, in 1639, to William Penn, of Penn- 
S3dvania, in 1681, was each to an individual Proprietor. 
That to Carolina, in 1663-65, was to eight Proprietors, 
and that to New Jersey, in 1664, was to tAvo, — Lord John 
Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, two of the Carolina 
Proprietors. A Royal Government had been substituted 
for the Proprietary in Barbadoes the same year as that 
in which the grant of Carolina was made, 1663. The 
grant of Maine passed to the company of Massachusetts 
Bay in 1677, and that of Maryland was resumed by the 
Crown in 1690. The Proprietary Government of Penn- 
sylvania continued until the Revolution. That of New 
Jersey became subdivided, until toAvards the close of the 
seventeenth century, the number of Proprietors had so 
increased as to render good government impracticable 
in consequence of divergent interests and views. The 
evil became unendurable, and in 1702 by the general 
consent of the Proprietors and people the former, while 
retaining all their rights of property, surrendered their 
rights of government to the Crown. 

Well would it have been for the province had the 
Proprietors of Carolina adopted the same course. They 
were, it is true, not so numerous as those of New Jersey 
ultimately became, but they were too many and too 
often changing for the efficient exercise of such powers. 
The continual changes and frequently recurring minori- 
ties and guardianships of the heirs or devisees of shares 
as deaths occurred among them, rendered the Board of 
Proprietors in a great measure perfunctory in its charac- 
ter, and allowed it at times to fall under the control of 
some irresponsible individual. Thus it was that while 
Sir George Carteret was Palatine the province was 
managed really by Locke, who was not officially con- 



UNDER THE PROPfllETARY GOVERNMENT 711 

nected with the Proprietors as a body, but merely the 
private secretary of Shaftesbury, and that after him John 
Archdale, while not really a Proprietor himself, in a great 
measure controlled its affairs ; and that after Archdale 
Mr. Shelton, the secretary, relieved the indolent mem- 
bers of their duties at the board, and conducted the 
affairs of the province of his own will, only asking their 
signatures to carry out what he proposed. The old 
Earl of Craven during his long presidency appears to 
have been always at hand as Palatine, and the Earl 
of Bath for the short time of his palatinate attended to 
its duties with some regularity ; but Lord John Gran- 
ville was the only Palatine who took an active interest 
in the affairs of the colony, and his interest in the 
matter was induced by and was subservient to the great 
political struggle of the time in England. 

The colonists of Carolina had now, with the connivance 
of the Royal Government, overthrown the weak and 
uncertain rule of this careless and inefficient body, and 
great was their demonstration of joy upon coming di- 
rectly under the rule of the King. But, after all, what 
had they gained? They were turned over by his Majesty, 
the King, to the control of the Board of Trade and Plan- 
tations. Would this board prove more attentive to, and 
observant of, their interests than the Board of Proprietors 
had been? If the self-interest of the Proprietors had not 
been sufficient to secure their attention to the province, 
was it likely that the Board of Trade and Plantations, 
without such interested motives, would be more attentive 
and concerned for their welfare ? Then again, in their 
contests with the Proprietors, they had had a measure to 
which they could always appeal, and by which the con- 
duct of the Proprietors could be judged. Was the con- 
duct of the Proprietors in accordance with their charter ? 



712 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

was a question they had a right to ask. But now there 
was no longer any charter to which they could appeal in 
restraint of the Board of Trade. Under the Royal Gov- 
ernment, upon whose protection and under whose imme- 
diate control they had thrown themselves, in the place of 
the charter their lights and duties were to be prescribed 
in the Royal Instructions to the Governors, nominally by 
his Majesty, in reality by the Commissioners of Trade and 
Plantations, in which instructions there was to be no 
saving clause providing for "the advice assent and ap- 
probation of the freemen " of the province. 



APPENDIX 



RULES OF PRECEDENCY 
Under Locke's Fundamental Constitutions 

1st. The Lords Proprietors, the eldest in age first,i and so in order. 

2d. The eldest sons of the Lords Proprietors, the eldest in age first, 
and so in order. 

3d. The Landgraves of the Grand Council; he that hath been 
longest of the Grand Council first, and so in order. 

4th. The Caciques of the Grand Council ; he that hath been longest 
of the Grand Council first, and so in order. 

5th. The seven commoners of the Grand Council, that have been 
longest of the Grand Council ; he that hath been longest of the Grand 
Council first, and so in order. 

6th. The younger sons of the Proprietors; the eldest first, and so 
in order. 

7th. The Landgraves ; the eldest in age first, and so in order. 

8th. The seven commoners who next to those before mentioned 
have been longest of the Grand Council ; he that hath been longest of 
the Grand Council first, and so in order. 

9th. The Caciques, the eldest in age first, and so in order. 

10th. The seven remaining commoners of the Grand Council; he 
that hath been longest of the Grand Council first, and so in order. 

11th. The male line of the Proprietors. 

The rest shall be determined by the Chamberlain's Court. 

1 The first article of the Constitutions provided that the eldest of the 
Lords Proprietors shall be Palatine ; and upon the decease of the Pala- 
tine the eldest of the seven Proprietors should always succeed him. 

713 



714 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 



II 

DEVOLUTION OF TITLE OF THE PROPRIETARY SHARES 

IN CAROLINA 

1. Earl of Clarendon's Share. — During the exile of the Earl of 
Clarendon from 1667 to his death, 9th of December, 1674, this share was 
represented by Lord Cornbury, son of the Earl. It was afterwards 
purchased by Seth Sothell (or Southwell), September, 1681 {Coll. Hist. 
Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 105). Sothell died in North Carolina in 1694, as 
it was su]3posed, without heirs, assigns, or will, and the remaining Pro- 
prietors sequestered the share under the provisions of the Fundamen- 
tal Constitutions, and assigned it to Thomas Amy, 29th of September, 
1697. Upon the marriage of his daughter to Nicholas Trott of Lon- 
don, Amy assigned the share to Trott as a marriage portion, 21st of 
March, 1700. Under proceedings in chancery, the share, with that 
originally belonging to Sir William Berkeley, which also stood in the 
name of Thomas Amy, was sold 16th of February, 1724, at £900 for 
both, to Hugh Watson, who purchased as trustee of Henry and James 
Bertie, and subsequently this particular share was allotted to the Hon. 
James Bertie {Danson v. Trott, Brown Pari. Cases, vol. Ill, 452-457), 
in whose name it was surrendered to the Crown (Statutes of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 62). 

2. Duke of Albemarle's Share. — The Duke of Albemarle died 3d of 
December, 1669, and his share descended to his son, the second Duke, 
who died in 1688 without issue (Burke). The Earl of Bath was ad- 
mitted as Proprietor in his room 24th of April, 1694 (Coll. Hist. Soc. 
of So. Ca., vol. I, 135). The Earl of Bath died 21st of August, 1701, 
and was succeeded by his son, John Lord Granville (Ibid., 150). The 
share subsequently became vested in the Duke of Beaufort in April, 
1709 (Ibid., 156), who died 24th of May, 1714, and by his will devised 
it to James Bertie and Hon. Dodington Greville, trustees for his sons, 
Henry, the second Duke of Beaufort, and Charles Noel Somerset, in 
whose name it was surrendered to the Crown (Statutes of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 62). 

3. Earl of Craven's Share. — The Earl of Craven died 9th of April, 
1697, without issue, and William Lord Crav^en, his grandnephew, suc- 
ceeded to his proprietorship (Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 141). 
He was succeeded by his son William I^ord Craven 8th of November, 
1711, in whose name the share was surrendered to the Crown (Statutes 
of So. Ca., vol. I, 62). 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 715 

4. Lord Berkeley's Share. — Lord Berkeley fell in arrears in the joint 
stock, failing to pay his quota, and his share appears to have been 
forfeited and disposed of by the Proprietors to Joseph Blake on the 
11th of April, 1698 (Darison v. Trott, Coll. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. 
I, 148, 211). He died in 1700, and was succeeded by his son Joseph 
Blake, a minor, in whose name the share was surrendered to the 
Crown (Statutes of So. Ca., vol. I, 62). 

5. Lord Ashley's Share. — Lord Ashley, afterwards the Earl of 
Shaftesbury, died in exile, 21st of January, 1683, and was succeeded 
by his son Anthony Ashley, the second Earl, who died 10th of No- 
vember, 1699, and was succeeded by his son Anthony Ashley, the 
third Earl {Burke). The share became vested in Maurice, brother of 
the third Earl, who died without issue in 1726 (Ibid.), when the same 
became vested in Archibald Hutcheson, in trust for John Cotton, in 
whose name it was surreudered to the Crown (Statutes of So. Ca., 
vol. I, 62). 

6. Sir George Carteret's Share. — Sir George Carteret died loth of 
January, 1679, and was succeeded by his son Sir George, who died in 
1695, and was succeeded by his son John Lord Carteret, afterwards 
Earl of Granville, who refused to join the other Proprietors in the sur- 
render of 1729, and held his share until 1744, when he released upon 
the allotment to him in severalty of a part of North Carolina (Colo- 
nial Records of No. Ca., vol. IV, 655). 

7. Sir John Colleton's Share. — Sir John Colleton died in 1666, and 
was succeeded by his son Sir Peter, who died April, 1694 (Coll. Hist. 
Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 136), and he was succeeded by his son Sir John, 
a minor, in whose name it was surrendered to the Crown (Statutes of 
So. Ca., vol. I, 62). 

8. Sir William Berkeley's Share. — Sir William Berkeley died 13th 
of July, 1677 (Cooke's Hist, of Va., Am. Com. Series, 296). He devised 
his share to his widow, who afterwards married Philip Ludwell. While 
Lady Berkeley she sold the share to John Archdale, 20th of May, 1681, 
who took the title in the name of his son Thomas. Disregarding this 
sale, after her marriage she joined Philip Ludwell, her husband, in 
another sale of the same in 1682, and conveyed the same to Thomas 
Amy in trust for the then Duke of Albemarle, the then Lord Carteret, 
the Earl of Craven, and Sir John Colleton. Subsequently, in 1697, 
the four noblemen, cestuis que trust, requested William Thornburg to 
act as trustee in the place of Amy. Thornburg did so act, but with- 
out conveyance of the title by Amy. Subsequently, in 1705, the four 
cestuis que trust sold to and executed a deed to John Archdale of the 



716 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

same — the legal title still remaining in Thomas Amy. Archdale exe- 
cuted a deed for the same to his own son-in-law John Danson, 21st of 
October, 1708. These complications led to litigation, and under pro- 
ceedings in chancery the share was again sold, together with that 
formerly of the Earl of Clarendon, then of Sothell, and was purchased, 
as before stated, by Hugh Watson as trustee of Henry and James 
Bertie, and subsequently this particular share was allotted to Henry 
Bertie (Danson v. Trott, above), in whose name it was surrendered to 
the Crown (Statutes of So. Co., vol. I, 62). 

in 

LIST OF PALATIXES 

1. Duke of Albemarle, 21st of October, 1669 Col. Rec. of Xo. Ca., I, 179 

2. John Lord Berkeley, 20th of January, 1670 " " " I, 180 

3. Sir Georsre Carteret. " " " I, 239 

4. William Earl of Craven, 1681 " " " I, 338 

5. John Earl of Bath, 1 April, 1697 " " " 1,476 

6. John Lord Gran- / CoU.Hist.Soc.of So. Ca.,l, 105 

viUe. J 10th of January, 1701-2 " " " " L 150 

7. William Lord Craven, 1708 " " " "' I, 153 

8. Heury Duke of 

Beaufort, 8th of November, 1711 " '• " " 1.183 

9. John Lord Carteret, 10th of August, 1714 " 1.16.3 

1 The Earl of Bath is mentioned as the fourth Palatine as follows : 
" 1701-2 Jan 10 St James House — Memorandum of the death of John 
Earl of Bath fourth palatine of Carolina (21 August, 1701, Thursday) 
The Lords proprietors did not meet until Saturday 10 Jan 1701-2, when 
John Granville esq. succeeded the said Earl his father as the fifth palatine 
of Carolina" {CoU. Hist. Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 150). 

The explanation of this may be that as Lord Berkeley failed to pay 
his quota to the joint stock, he lost his position, as the other Proprie- 
tors did indeed sequester his share, but he certainly did succeed the 
Duke of Albemarle as above. 

LANDGRAVES AND CACIQUES 

The Royal charter reciting : " 13'\ And because many persons 
born and inhabiting in the said Province for their deserts and services 
may expect and be capable of marks of honour and favour fchich in 
respect to the great distance cannot conveniently he conferred hy us" etc., 



tJNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 717 

gave to the Proprietors " full power and authority to give and confer 
unto, and upon such of the inhabitants of the said province or territory as 
they shall think due or shall merit the same such marks of favour and 
titles of honour as they shall think lit so as their titles or honours be not 
the same as are enjoyed by or conferred upon any of the subjects of 
this our kingdom of England." 

In carrying out this power the Fioprietors provided in their Funda- 
mental Constitutions as follows : — 

•' IX. There shall be just as many landgraves as there are counties, 
and twice as many Cassiques and no more. These shall be the heredi- 
tary nobility of tlie province," etc. 

The nobility thus to be established, it will be observed, was in- 
tended by the charter to be confined to the inhabitants of the province, 
and so it was understood by the Proprietors, as shown by the above 
provision of the Fundamental Constitutions. But as will appear by 
the following list of Landgraves and caciques appointed, the restric- 
tion was disregarded. The titles were bestowed upon the friends of 
the Proi^rietors in England for services rendered them or from favor. 
In the following list, those who could at all come under the definition 
of " inhabitants " are given in italics. Most of these, it will be ob- 
served, were Governors ; it being customary to compliment the Gov- 
ernor with the title and the accompanying 48,000 acres of land. The 
provision of the Constitutions limiting the number of Landgraves to 
the number of counties, and of the Caciques to double that number, it 
also appears was likewise disregarded. All the Governors appointed 
Landgraves are marked in the following lists as "inhabitants," he- 
cause they actually came to Carolina, but in most of these cases it is 
questionable w^hether even they were included in the terms of the 
charter, as the title was bestowed upon them before their coming, and 
when they were not inhabitants of the colony. 

LIST OF LAXDGRAVES 

1. John Locke, author of the Fundamental Constitutions, 1671. 

2. James Carteret, Baronet, 1671. 

3. Sir John Yeamans, first Governor of Carolina, 1671. 

4. Sir Ednmnd Andros, appointed Governor of Carolina, but did 
not act, 1671. 

5. Colonel Joseph West, Governor of Carolina, 1674. 

6. Thomas Colleton, Esq., of Barbadoes, brother of Sir Peter 
Colleton, Proprietor, 1681. 



718 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

7. Joseph Mor(e)ton, Esq., Governor of Carolina, 1681. 

8. Daniel Axtell of the Council of Carolina, 1681. 

9. Sir Richard Kjp'le, Knight, Governor of Carolina, 1684. 

10. James Colleton, Esq., Governor of Carolina, brother of Sir 
Peter, Proprietor, 1686. 

11. Mr. John Price, 1687. 

12. Thomas Smith, Esq., Governor of Carolina, 1691. 

13. Colonel Robert Daniel, Deputy Governor of North Carolina; 
afterwards Governor of South Carolina, 1691. 

14. John Archdale, Governor of Carolina, Proprietor, 1694. jJl 

15. Joseph Blake, Proprietor and Governor of Carolina, 1696. ■ 

16. Thomas Amy, Esq., Merchant of London, Proprietor, 1697. 

17. Edmund Bellinger of the Council of Carolina, 1698. 

18. John Bayly, Esq., of Balmaclough, Tipperary, Ireland, 1698. 

19. John Wyche, Esq., of London, Secretary of Proprietors, 1700. 

20. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, Knight, M. P., Governor of Carolina, 
1703. 

21. Christopher Baron de Graffenreid, 1709. 

22. Major Edward Juckes, 1709. 

23. Abel Kettleby, Esq., of the Middle Temple, Barrister, Attorney 
General, and agent of province, 1715. 

24. Mr. William Hodgson, son-in-law of Lord Craven. 

25. Charles Eden, Esq., Governor of North Carolina, 1718. 



LIST OF CACIQUES 

1. Captain Henry Wilkinson, 1681. 

2. Mr. John Smith of the Grand Council of Carolina, 1682. 

3. Major Thomas Rowe, 1682. 

4. Mr. Thomas Amy of London (see above list of Landgraves), 
1682. 

5. John Gibhs, Esq., a relative of the Duke of Albemarle, 1682. 

6. John Ashhy, Esq., of London, 1682. 

7. John Monk; Esq., named by Duke of Albemarle, 168-. 

8. Sir Nathaniel Johnson (see above list of Landgraves), 1686. 

9. Dr. Christopher Dominick. 

10. Thomas Smith, Esq., of the Council of Carolina (see above list 
of Landgraves), 1690. 

11. Philip Ludwell, Esq., Governor of Carolina, 1692. 

12. Mr. William Hodgson (see above list of Landgraves), 1715. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 719 

Note. — Of the foregoing lists the names of the Landgraves up to 
and inchiding that of John Price, and the names of the Caciques up 
to and inchiding John Monk, are to be found in the Calendar of State 
Papers, Colonial Series, 1669-74, edited by Noel Sainsbury, Assist- 
ant Keeper of Records, London, 1889. The remainder has been col- 
lated with the assistance of Langdon Cheves, Esq., counsellor at law, 
Charleston, South Carolina. 

In the Co//. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca., vol. I, 174, there are these entries, 
"1726 July 1. Document signed Thomas Lowndes being a memo- 
randum that he has purchased of the heirs and executors of John 
Price deceased a landgraveship with four baronies of 12,000 acres 
thereto annexed ; that the said Mr. Lowndes did surrender his patent 
and did accept in lieu four single baronies one in his own name, and 
three in the names of three other persons in trust for him." 

Ihid., 198. " 1726 March 30. . . . Agreed to make Col. Samuel 
Horsey for his services a landgrave annexing thereto four baronies of 
12,000 acres each." 



LIST OF GOVERNORS 

1. Sir John Yeamans, Lieutenant General and Governor of the 
province of Carolina, 11th of January, 1664-65. 

2. William Sayle, first Governor of the colony established on the 
Ashley River, July 26, 1669 ; died Septembei", 1670. 

3. Joseph West, chosen by Council on death of Sayle, September, 
1670; removed by Proprietors, 19th of April, 1672. 

4. Sir John Yeamans, proclaimed by Proprietors, 19th of April, 
1672; removed 18th of April, 1674. 

5. Joseph West, appointed by Proprietors, 18th of April, 1674; re- 
moved 18th of May, 1682. 

6. Joseph Mor(e)ton, appointed by Proprietors, 18th of May, 1682 
removed — April, 1684. 

7. Richard Kyrle, appointed by Proprietors, 29th of April, 1684 
died, , 1684. 

8. Robert Quarry, chosen by Council on death of Kyrle, , 1684 

removed by Proprietors, 11th of March, 1684-85. 

9. Joseph West, appointed by Proprietors, 11th of March, 1684-85 
retired September, 1685. 



720 HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

10. Joseph ]Mor(e)ton, chosen by Council September, 1685 ; con- 
firmed by Proprietors ; removed, , 1686. 

11. James Colleton, appointed by Proprietors, ,1686; over- 
thrown by revolution, 1090. 

12. Seth Sothell, assumed government as a Proprietor, 6th of Oc- 
tober, 1690; yielded to Ludwell, appointed by Proprietors, 2d of No- 
vember, 1691. 

13. Philip Ludwell, appointed by Proprietors, 2d of November, 
1691 ; removed by Proprietors, 29th of November, 1693. 

14. Thomas Smith, appointed by Proprietors, 29th of November, 
1693; retired, 1694. 

15. Joseph Blake, chosen by Council, 1694 ; removed by Proprietors, 
31st of August, 1694. 

16. John Archdale, appointed by Proprietors, 31st of August, 1694 ; 
retired , 1696. 

17. Joseph Blake, appointed by Governor Archdale as Deputy on 
his retirement under special power, , 1696; appointment con- 
firmed by Proprietors, 25th of April, 1697 ; died, 1700. 

18. James Moore, chosen by Council, 1700; not confirmed by Pro- 
prietors but allowed to exercise office until 18th of June, 1702. 

19. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, appointed by Proprietors, 18th of June, 
1702 ; removed, 9th of December, 1708. 

20. Colonel Edward Tynte, appointed by Proprietors, 9th of De- 
cember, 1708; died, 1709. 

21. Robert Gibbes, chosen by Council, 1709 ; not confirmed by Pro- 
prietors but allowed to exercise office until 1712. 

22. Hon. Edward Craven, appointed by Proprietors, , 1712 ; 

retired, 25th of April, 1716. 

23. Robert Daniel, appointed by Governor Craven as Deputy, on 
his retirement under special power, 25th of April, 1716 ; removed, 
30th of April, 1717. 

24. Robert Johnson, appointed by Proprietors, 30th of April, 1717; 
Proprietary Government overthrown, 21st of December, 1719. 

25. James Moore, son of former Governor, chosen by the Conven- 
tion, 21st of December, 1719. 



UNDER THE PUOPKlETAllY GOVERNMENT 721 



VI 

LAW OFFICERS 
Chief Justices : 

Edmund Bohun • 1698-1700 

James Moore 1700-1701 

Nicholas Trott 1702-1709 

Robert Gibbes 1709-1713 

Nicholas Trott 1713-1719 

Attorney Generals: 

Nicholas Trott 1698-1702 

James Moore 1703- 

William Sanders , . . . 1708-1710 

George Evans 1710-1716 

Richard Pindar , . 1716 

George Rodd 1716 

Richard Allein 1718 

Judges of Court of Admiralty : 

Joseph Mor(e)ton 1699 

John Turbill 1708 

Thomas Nairne 1710 

Nicholas Trott 1716 

3 a 



722 HISTOKY OF SOUTH CAROLINA 

VII 
POPULATION 

Negro 
"Whites. Slaves. Total. 

1671 200 . . 200 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sains- 

bury), London, 1889, No. 474. 
1671-72 399 .. 399 Calendar State Papers, Colonial (Sains- 

bury), London, 1889, No. 736. 
Charleston Year Book (Courtenay), 
1883, 379. 

1680 1200 . . 1200 T A Gen't (Thomas Ashe), Car- 
roll's Coll., vol. II, 82. 

1685 2500 . . 2500 Howe's Hist, of Presh. Ch., 85 ; Charles- 
ton Year Book, supra, 385. ^ 
1699-1700 5500 . . 5500 Edward Randolph, Appendix, Hist. 

Sketches (Rivers), 443; Coll. Hist. 
Sac. of So. Ca., vol. I, 210 ; Hewatt's 
Hist, of So. Ca., vol. I, 147; Draryt's 
View of So. Ca., 193 ; Dalcho's Ch. 
Hist., 39 ; see ante. Chap. XIV. 

1701 . . . . 7000 Mills's Statistics of So. Ca., 177, quoting 

Humphrey's Historical Account of So- 
ciety for Propagation of the Gospel, 25.'-^ 

1708 4080 4100 8180 Report' of Governor N. Johnson, Hist. 

Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 232; 
Chapter Colonial Hist, of Carolina 
(Rivers), 66 ; Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. 
Ca., vol. II, 217.3 

1708 .. .. 12,000 Oldmixon's jBn7i.s7i^m/)/re m^m., vol. I, 

51 8 ; Carroll's Coll., vol. II, 460 ; Chap- 
ter Colonial Hist., 66.'* 

1714 . . 10,000 . . Hist. Sketches of So. Ca. (Rivers), 251, 

note. 

1715 6250 10,500 16,750 Hildreth's History of the United States, 

vol. II, 278. 

1716 . . 10,000 . . Colonial Records of No. Ca., vol. H, 233. 
1719 6460 . . . . Report of Governor Robert Johnson, 

Coll. Hist. Soc. of So. Ca.,\o\. II, 239. 

1 This is a mere estimate by the author Dr. Howe, resting upon no 
original authority which we can find. 

2 Estimate of Dr. Humphrey's, resting upon no original authority. 

3 Governor Johnson reports the number of Indian slaves as 1400. 

4 Estimate of Oklmixon, the author, contradicted by report of Governor 
Sir Nathaniel Johnson and Council. 



UNDER THE PROPRIETARY GOVERNMENT 723 



VIII 

AN ACCOUNT OF THE NUMBER OF SHIPS AND VES- 
SELS ENTERED, AND OF NEGROES IMPORTED FROM 
THE YEAR 1706 TO THE YEAR 1724, BOTH INCLU- 
SIVE ; VIZ. : — 

Years. jS'egroes. Vessels. 

1706 24 68 

1707 22 66 

1708 53 81 

1709 107 70 

1710 131 92 

1711 ....... 170 81 

1712 76 82 

1713 159 99 

1714 419 121 

1715 81 133 

1716 67 162 

1717 573 127 

1718 529 114 

1719 541 1.37 

1720 601 129 

1721 165 121 

1722 323 120 

1723 . 436 116 

1724 604 122 

In 19 years . . 5081 2041 

This account is taken from " The Report of the Committee of the 
Commons House of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina, on the 
State of the Paper Currency of the said Province. London. Printed 
by Thomas Wood, in the year MDCCXXXVII." 



INDEX 



Adams, Rev., miuister Congregational 
church, 335. 

Addison, Secretary of State, refers 
memorial of Commons to Board of 
Trade, 571. 

Admiral, office of, under Fundamental 
Constitution, 141. 

Admiralty, Rohert Quarry, judge of, 
203, 204 ; courts of, 253, 29G, 297 ; a 
vessel condemned as prize in, 304 ; 
Trott appointed judge of, 564 ; court 
of, commissioned, 575 ; Trott's charge 
upon history of, 610 ; Lords of, 633. 

Adventure, The Ship, prize taken by 
pirates, 594. 

Adventure, Kidd's vessel^ 263. 

Adventurer, The Ship, Hilton's voy- 
age, 71. 

Adventurers, for Carolina, 79; char- 
acter of, 315, 31<). 

Advocate General, Jonathan Amory 
appointed, 297 ; Trott appointed, 298. 

Africa, importation of rice free to, 517. 

Agent of Colony, Abel Kettleby ap- 
pointed, 516. 

Agrarian Laws, sent by Proprietors, 
167 : character of, 168, 169, 207. 

Agriculture, Wilson's description of, 
187 ; Proprietors' neglect of, 314 ; 
character of, 484. 

Alabama, Territory of, included in 
Charter of 1665-77. 

Albemarle, Colony at, 4; banishes 
Sothell, 231. 

Albemarle, County of, established, 74, 
75 ; to send delegates to Assembly at 
Charles Town, 2()7. 

Albemarle, Duke of, a Proprietor, 61 ; 
Sir John Colleton addresses, 70 ; the 
first Palatine, 110; Joseph West, 
deputy for, 124 ; death of, 138, 268. 

Albemarle, Second Duke of, contract 
as to Indian trade, 177 ; succeeds to 
Proprietorship, 268. 



Albemarle, The Ship, one of the fleet 
in the Dowues, 115, 120 ; lost at Bar- 
badoes, 122; mentioned, 123, 126. 

Albert de la Pierria, captain left by 
Ribault in command of Fort Charles, 
45 ; his conduct, 46, 47. 

Albrahall, Bichard, accompanies 
Sandford, 82, 83. 

Alexander, John, surety for Captain 
Reiner charged with piracy, 261. 

Aliens, act for making free, 289; al- 
lowed to vote, 374, 462. 

AUein, Richard, Attorney General, 
prosecutes pirates, 607 ; makes 
charges against Trott, 630 ; made 
Chief Justice, 656; made president 
of Council, 663. 

Amory (or Emory), Jonathan, men- 
tioned in connection with Sothell's 
commissions to pirates, 237 ; mem- 
ber of Assembly, 239 ; speaker, 241 ; 
claims vessel purchased as a prize, 
262 ; addresses Archdale as speaker, 
287 ; appointed Advocate in Admir- 
alty, 297 ; death of, 309 ; comes from 
Jamaica, 327 n. ; bequest to minister 
of St. Philip's Church, 697. 

Amory, Martha, like bequest of, 697. 

Amy, Thomas, mentioned as a Land- 
grave, 111 ; proprietary share of Sir 
William Berkeley vested in, 270; 
services rendered, at Carolina Coffee 
House, 271 ; Clarendon-Sothell share 
also vested in him , 271 ; relation to 
Sir William Berkeley's share, 272; 
compensation claimed for services at 
Carolina Coffee House, 273 ; attends 
meeting of Proprietors, 27(5 ; joins in 
instructions to Archdale, 277 ; made 
Landgrave, 290 ; attends meeting of 
Proprietors, 291 ; services alluded to, 
316; settles the Clarendon-Sothell 
share on Nicholas Trott of London, 
his son-in-law, 387 ; death of, 459 ; 



725 



726 



INDEX 



claim of his heirs, 459, 460, 674, 
675. 

Audros, Sir Edmund, mentioned as 
Governor of New England, 229; a 
Landgrave, 717. 

Anjou, Duke of, mentioned, 365. 

Anne, Queen, accession of, 36(5; pro- 
claimed in Carolina, 388; approves 
Sir Nathaniel Johnson as Governor, 
389 ; accession revives Toryism, 403 ; 
Marlborough all powerful under, 405 ; 
first Parliament of, expires, 426, 427 ; 
danger to the church proclaimed by, 
430; address of House of Lords to, 
435; returns thanks, 436; orders 
Proprietors to have church acts re- 
pealed, 444; death of, 527. 

Antigua, Island of, one of Kidd's 
mariners put ashore on, 263 ; colo- 
nists come from, 327 n. ; exports to, 
478. 

Antonio, Indian, Lord Cardross reports 
his " sinistrous dealings," 214. 

Appalachian Mountains, mentioned, 
347. 

Apalachians, or Apalachi Indians, 
invade Carolina, 380 ; Moore invades 
the territory of, 392 ; they join the 
Yamassees, 546. 

Archdale, John, his description of 
Carolina mentioned, 15 ; his descrip- 
tion of early colonists, 174 ; Proprie- 
tors announce his purchase of Sir 
William Berkeley's share, 270, 272 ; 
attends meeting of Proprietors, 276, 
277; agrees to come to Carolina, 
277 ; his instructions. Ibid. ; his char- 
acter. Ibid. ; commissioned as Gov- 
ernor, 278 ; made Landgrave, Ibid. ; 
awaits in Virginia further instruc- 
tions, Ibid. ; arrives in Carolina, 279 ; 
his conduct as Governor, 280, 281 , 282, 
283, 284, 285, 286; upon departure 
appoints Joseph Blake Deputy Gov- 
ernor, 287 ; mentioned, 291, 295 ; 
claims credit for his administration, 
314 ; his criticism of first settlers, 
315; mentioned, 330, 345, 347; again 
purchases share of Sir William 
Berkeley, 387 ; mentioned, 403, 428, 
437, 459 ; conveys share of Sir Will- 
iam Berkeley to John Danson, 460 ; 



assails Governor Johnson, 461 ; men- 
tioned, 465 ; publishes his descrip- 
tion of Carolina, 486; mentioned, 
(574, 711. 

Archdale, Thomas, title of share of 
Sir William Berkeley purchased by 
John Archdale, taken in his name, 
272. 

Archer, Captain Allen, of brigantine 
EvperiDient, 567. 

Arizona, Territory of, included in 
charter of 1665, 77. 

Arkansas, Territory of, included in 
charter of 16()5, 77. 

Ash, John, dissents to thanks to Gov- 
ernor Moore, 382 ; ill treatment of, 
38(5 ; a leader of the dissenters, 403 ; 
sent to Europe to lay grievances be- 
fore Proprietors, 412, 413 ; death of, 
425. 

Ash, John, son of former, qualifies as 
meml)er of Assembly, 445. 

Ash, Thomas, writes description of 

Carolina, under designation of T 

A , 14, 15 ; quotations from, 183, 

186, 188. 

Ashepoo or Ashipoo, plantation laid 
out on, for certain Proprietors, 
175; lands on, ceded l)y Indians, 
179. 

Ashley, Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, 
one of the Proprietors, 62; Kiawha 
River named Ashley, 92 ; Chief Jus- 
tice under Fundamental Constitu- 
tion, 110 ; John Rivers, agent of, IK! ; 
Stephen Bull, deputy for, 124 ; Braine 
w^rites to, 135; O'Sullivan writes to, 
136; Sir John Yeamans writes to, 
137 ; writes to Joseph West, 138 ; 
Buell and Dalton write to, 144 ; writes 
to Joseph West, 145; Joseph West 
writes to, 151 ; writes to Sir John 
Yeamans, 155, 158 ; recipient of com- 
plaints of all parties, 156; letters 
of, in handwriting of John Locke, 
157; Braine writes to, 170; differ- 
ences with Clarendon, 255, 256 (see 
Shaftesbury) . 

Ashley, Maurice, represents Proprie- 
tary share of liis brother, 387, 428, 
437, 459, »)27; share becomes vested 
in, 635; letter to Lady Shaftesbury, 



INDEX 



727 



669, 670; a Proprietor, 675; his 
executor surrenders share, 679. 

Ashley Kiver, named, 92 ; mentioned, 
139, 140, 145 ; lands taken up on 
each side of, 146 ; Charles Town 
upon, 156; new town laid out upon 
confluence of, with Wando, 162 ; Old 
Town on, 163; colonists on, 176; 
mentioned, 182, 206. 

Assembly, Parliament now called, 
240; members of, 239, 240, 241 ; men- 
tioned, 323; representation, in sub- 
ject to statute, 405 ; irregularity in 
election of, charged, 406 ; act in re- 
gard to election of, sacramental test, 
406, 407, 408, 409, 410 ; action of, in 
regard to Rev. Mr. Marston, 413, 
414, 415, 420; act regulating elec- 
tions of, 423; mentioned, 431, 435; 
Governor Johnson's message to, in 
regard to Mr. Marston, 445; men- 
tioned, 453 ; result of election for 
(1706), 454; quarrels with Governor 
Johnson, 455, 456, 457; Governor's 
party regain control, 458 ; questions 
Trott's Proprietorship, 459; men- 
tioned, 462; informed of Governor 
Tynte's appointment, 465 ; Governor 
Johnson addresses, 467 ; action in 
regard to Mr. Boone, 467 ; address to 
Governor Johnson, 468 ; to the Pro- 
prietors, 469, 470 ; another chosen 
(1711), 492; resolution of, in regard 
to Indian uprising in North Carolina, 
498; action upon, 499; members of, 
505 n. ; Governor Craven's " speech " 
to, 505; action upon, 507; enact- 
ments of, 508-524; mentioned, 546; 
enactments of, 555, 556, 557, 558, 560, 
561,562,563; mentioned, 572; enact- 
ments of, 573 ; address to Governor 
Daniel on subject of pirates, 574; 
Gov. Robert Johnson addresses, 578, 
579, 580 ; reply of, 580, 581 ; quarrel 
with Governor about the public re- 
ceiver, 582, 583; enactments of, 584, 
585; passes act for speedy trial of 
pirates, 605 ; action of, in regard to 
rents, 624; revises election law, 625; 
lays duties on imports, 526 ; dissolved 
by order of Proprietors, 626, (527 ; 
Governor and Council takes action 



thereon, 632; members of, address 
Proprietors, 634 ; mentioned, 637 ; 
private meetings of members of, 
647 ; assemble, choose speaker, and 
deliver address disowning Proprie- 
tors, and calling upon Governor 
Johnson to hold for the King, 649 ; 
resolves itself into a Convention, 
650, 651, 652, 653, 654; vote them- 
selves again into an Assembly, ap- 
point officers, and send John Barn- 
well agent to England, 654, 655, 656; 
publish declaration of causes which 
led to revolution, 656, (557. 
Attorney General, Trott, the first 
commissioned, 259, 297; James 
Moore, commissioned, 391; list of, 
see Appendix VI, 721. 
Axtell Daniel, leads movement of dis- 
senters to Carolina and made Land- 
grave, 194; mentioned, 199, 288, 
292, 318, 345, 402, 403, 440. See List 
of Landgraves, Appendix IV, 718. 
Axtell, Lady, title of, 317 n., 326. 
Ayaville, Spanish Indian village taken 

by Moore, 393. 
Azilia, proposed province under Sir 

Robert Montgomery, 575, 577. 
Bacot, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 
Bahama Islands, Sayle's report of, 
113, 114; Randolph's suggestion in 
regard to, 293; retreat of pirates, 
295 ; mentioned, 297 ; trade to, 301 ; 
exports to, 478; plundered by Span- 
iards and French, 564; pirates on, 
574, 588. 
Baker, Jonathan, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 
Ballot, voting by, 102, 199 and 7i., 423, 

424, 561. 
Baltimore, Lord, Charter of Maryland 

to, mentioned, 56, 710. 
Bank, established, 523, 524; Proprie- 
tors' repugnance to, 569. 
Baptists, Screven's colony of, 325, 326 ; 
mentioned, 329; removal to Charles 
Town, 337; numbers of, 338, 
()99. 
Baptist Church, lot for, given by 

V*'illi:un Elliot, .337. 
Barbadian Influence, 68, 234, 354, 357, 
688, 689. 



728 



INDEX 



Barbadian sloop, procured to supply 
loss of the Albemarle, 122 ; reaches 
Bermuda, 123; separates from fleet, 
124 ; perils and arrival of, 126, 127 ; 
mentioned, 131. 

Barbadians, 75, 92, 93, 156, 158, 212, 
327 and )i., 329, 355, 356. 

Barbadoes, navigatiou first by way 
of, 8 ; grants of, 54 : royal govern- 
ment in, 57; planters of, leave, 69, 
70 ; emigrants from, 114 ; mentioned, 
115 ; fleet arrives at, 122 ; the Albe- 
marle lost at, 122; fleet sails from, 
123; mentioned, 126, 12S, 137, 139, 
140, 143; Sir John Yeamans brings 
slaves from, 151 ; provisions ex- 
ported to, 171; trade with, 189; 
chiirchmen from, 198 ; Colleton s 
from, 218; Yeamans makes Caro- 
lina subservient to, 224 ; beef shipped 
to, 284; landgraves appointed from, 
292 ; yellow fever brought from, 309 ; 
mentioned, 317 ; new additions from, 
327, 329 ; earliest settlers from, 354 ; 
social life at, 355 ; parish electoral 
system taken from, 560; slave sys- 
tem taken from, 683; grant of the 
Earl of Carlisle to, 709. 

Barker, Captain Thomas, killed by 
Indian, 5'.M^. 

B<?.rley, produced, 187. 

Barnwell, John, comes to Carolina, 
367 ; his character, 369 ; volunteers 
in Rhett's fleet, and brings news of 
capture of the French at Sewee, 400 ; 
given command of expedition to 
North Carolina against Tuscarora 
Indians, and sets out, 499; attacks 
and defeats them, 500; himself 
wounded, Ibid.; thanked for his con- 
duct, 500 ; conduct afterwards ques- 
tioned, 501 ; vindicated, 501, 502, 
503 ; news of his success, 507 ; luiable 
to command new expedition because 
of wound, 525 ; made colonel of 
forces organized, 544; letter to Sir 
Robert Montgomery about Azilia, 
577 ; chosen agent of convention sent 
to England, 656; on his voyage 
thither, 665 ; arrives amidst excite- 
ment over South Sea bubble, 666 : 
with Boone procures a hearing be- 



fore Lord Regents, 671 ; military 
character of, 684. 

Barony, baronies established under 
Fundamental Constitution, 95, 96, 
97. 

Barre, Nicholas, command of Fort 
Charles bestowed upon, 46. 

Barrett, Rev. Thomas, Presbyterian 
minister, 335. 

Bath, Earl of, admitted a Proprietor, 
268 : represents Sir George Carteret 
a minor, 269 ; attends meeting of Pro- 
prietors, 276 : absent from, 277 ; suc- 
ceeds as Palatine, 290, 291; death 
of, 387; mentioned, 526. 

Batin, Richard, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164 )i., 181. 

Baxter, Edward, master ship Albe- 
marle, 115. 

Bayly, Captain Joseph, owner of lot 
in Old Ttnvn, 164. 

Bayly, John, purchases landgrave- 
ship, 2'.t2. 

Bazant, Jean, grant to, 181. 

Beadon, George, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134 ; owner of lot in Old Town, 
164. 

Beamor, John, opposes church acts, 
40!t; as member of Commons signs 
memorial to the King, 571. 

Bears, reward offered for killing, 352. 

Beaufort, Duke of, admitted as Pro- 
prietor, 465; Beaufort Town named 
in honor of, 493; chosen Palatine, 
504 ; death of, 526 : death announced, 
527. 

Beaufort, Duke of, son of former, a 
minor, mentioned, 539, (527 ; surren- 
ders Proprietorship, (579-714. 

Beaufort Town, second town to be 
settled, 7 ; directions for building, 
493 and n. ; Spaniards sei; on Indians 
to prevent, 547, 575. 

Belgians, grants to. 322. 

Bellinger, Captain John, killed fight- 
ing Indians, ."593. 

Bellinger, Edmund, Proprietors con- 
sult about constitution, 291; pur- 
chases landgraveship, 292; plan- 
tation of, mentioned, 3A5 ; first 
ajipears as deputy of Thomas Amy, 
3(59; charged with conspiracy, 372; 



INDEX 



729 



Justice of Peace, conduct during 
riots, 385, 3S6. 

Benet, Hon. William C, Commis- 
sioner of Public Records, 32. 

Benoist, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Berkeley, county of, Percival ap- 
pointed register of, 176 ; defined, 
193; direction as to representation 
of, 198, 199; opposed by inhabitants 
of, 207; Ludwell's instruction as to, 
236, 237, 238; representation fixed 
by people under Archdale, 282 ; 
county generally for Church of 
England," 329. 

Berkeley, Lady, wife of three govern- 
ors in succession, 235 n. ; sells Pro- 
prietorship to Archdale, 270; Pro- 
prietors purchase from her as Dame 
Ludwell, 272, 290. 

Berkeley, Lord John, one of the Pro- 
prietors, 56 ; sketch of, 62 ; chancel- 
lor under Fundamental Constitution, 
110 ; Dr. William Scrivener deputy 
for, 124, 134; becomes Palatine, 138; 
Sir John Yeamans deputy for, 156 ; 
death of, 268, 269 ; failure to pay his 
quota to joint stock, mentioned, 274 ; 
share passes to Landgrave Joseph 
Blake, 388 ; mentioned, 710. 

Berkeley, Sir William, mentioned, 2 ; 
one of the Proprietors, 56 ; sketch of, 
63, 64 ; commission as Governor of 
Carolina sent to, 74; opposition to 
free schools and printing, 108 ; Ler- 
derer, the explorer, sent by, 128; 
Col. Philip Ludwell, secretary to, 
235; sketch of, 269, 270; failure to 
pay quota to joint stock, mentioned, 
274 ; contentions over share of, 387, 
460, 673, 674. 

Berkly, John, grant to, 180. 

Bermudk, first colony sent by way 
of, 8 ; adventurers from, 75, 114 ; 
part of fleet reach, 123; Governor 
Sayle of, 124 ; adventurers from, 128 ; 
mentioned, 137, 151. 

Bermudian sloop, accompanies the 
Carolina and meets the Barbadian 
sloop, 126. 

Berresford, John, of Archdale's Coun- 
cil, 280. 

Berresford, Eichard, Clerk of the 



Peace, joins in petition to Sothell, 
230; appointed deputy by Sothell, 
231 ; joins in charges against Gov- 
ernor Colleton, 236; sent by Assem- 
bly to Savannah Indians, 456 ; signs 
Governor Johnson's reports on con- 
dition of colony, 477 ; commissioner 
of free school, 488 ; sent with Boone 
to England, 530; letter of Assembly 
to Boone and, 550; presents memo- 
rial to Commissioners of Trade and 
Plantations, 551, 552, 554; men- 
tioned, 569, 570; attends before 
Board of Trade, 571 ; Lord Carteret 
questions right of, to represent As- 
sembly, 572 ; appeal of, encouraged 
by Royal Government, 681. 

Bertie, Edward, Proprietors appoint 
Secretary, (577 ; one of trustees to 
receive surrender of the charter, 679. 

Bertie, Henry, represents Proprietary 
of minor Duke of Beaufort, 635 ; 
purchases share of Sir Wm. Berke- 
ley, 676 ; and surrenders it to the 
Crown, 679. 

Bertie, James, addresses of Lords of 
Trade in behalf of minor Duke of 
Beaufort, 538 ; signs for Duke Beau- 
fort order to dissolve Assembly, 627 ; 
finds heirs of Sothell and purchases 
share, 674, 675, 677 ; and surrenders 
it to the Crown, 679. 

Biggs, Timothy, owner of lot in old 
Charles Town, 164. 

Bills of Credit, issued, 482, 523, 524, 
585, 626. 

Bill of "Rights, 241. 

Blackbeard. See Thatch. 

Blackstone, Sir William, quoted 52, 
59, ln\)n., 190//., 253. 

Black Cattle. See Cattle. 

Blair, Rev. James, bishop of London's 
Commissary for Virginia, 420, 471. 

Blake, Benjamin, leader of Dissen- 
sion movement to South Carolina, 
194 ; mentioned, 267, 288. 

Blake, Joseph, attempts to allay dis- 
content, 223 ; on committee to con- 
sider Fundamental Constitutions, 
225; mentioned, 232, 254; Randolph 
complains of, 260; chosen by Coun- 
cil to act as Governor, 267 ; Lord 



730 



INDEX 



Berkeley's Proprietary share con- 
veyed to, 261) ; member of Arclidale's 
Council, 280; appointed Deputy Gov- 
ernor, 288; mentioned, 292; becomes 
a Proprietor, Ibid. ; not confirmed 
as Governor, 302 ; Bohun opposes, 
304; letter of Proprietors to, 30G; 
mentioned, 318, 326, 345; an Indian 
trader, 347 ; conflict with Trott, 370 ; 
suspends Trott, 372 ; death of, Ibid. ; 
mentioned, 388, 440, 689; liberal to 
all Christians, CDS. 

Blake, Joseph, son of former, owner, 
of Proprietary share formerly of 
Lord Berkeley, 388; mentioned, 428, 
429, 437, 438, 459, 469, 635 ; sur- 
renders Proprietary share to the 
Crown, 679. 

Blake, Lady, or Madam, title of, 317 n. ; 
a Baptist, 326; contributions to St. 
Philip's Church, 334 ; aj^points Boone, 
representative of her minor son. 
Proprietor, 469; her plantation de- 
stroyed by Indians, 546. 

Blake way, Major "William, joins in 
letter to Governor Johnson, 647. 

Blaney, Kobert, Secretary to Lord 
Ashley, Owen writes to, 136. 

Blenheim, victory of, 366; mentioned, 
452. 

Blessing, The Ship, brings instructions 
from Proprietors, 139; brings out 
several families, 144; and other 
small parties, 180. 

Blount, Tom, The Indian Chief, Gov- 
ernor Pollock of North Carolina 
negotiates with, 525. 

Bocquet, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Bohun, Edmund, commissioned Chief 
Justice, 298; sketch of, 299, 300; 
Proprietors write concerning, Ibid. ; 
opposes Governor Blake, 304; corre- 
spondence in regard to, 306, 307 ; 
death of, 309; mentioned, 692. 

Boiseau, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Bond, Rev. Samuel, Governor Sayles 
ai)i)lies for, to be sent to colony, 131, 
132; mentioned, 183. 

Bonneau, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Bonneau, Paul, member of Assembly, 
2: '.9. 

Bonnet, Stede, Chief Justice Trott's 



charge in regard to mentioned, 254; 
Pirate Thatch meets, 589; piratical 
career begun, 593; sails for South 
Carolina, 594 ; his capture off Charles 
Town bar. Ibid. ; sails for North 
Carolina, Ibid. ; joins Thatch, Ibid. ; 
in company on several cruises, 595; 
sails for North Carolina, 595 ; accepts 
pardon, Ibid.; sails again, Ibid.; 
makes several captures, 596 ; Rhett's 
expedition against, Ibid., 597, 598, 
59S); battle with, 600, 601, 602, 603; 
captured, 603, 604 ; escapes, 609 ; 
recaptured, 612; his trial, 616, 617, 
618; appeals for mercy, 619, 620; 
executed, 620, 621 ; mentioned, 690. 

Boone, Ensign, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164. 

Boone, John, member of Council, 197. 

Boone, Joseph, leader of party, 403; 
sent to England, 425; induces mer- 
chants in London to join him in 
representation of dissenters' case, 
applies to Lord Granville to be 
heard, 428; appears before Proprie- 
tors, refuted by Lord Gi-anville, 429; 
assumes championship of Marston, 
430 ; presents memorial to House of 
Lords, 431, 432 ; memorial considered, 
433, 434 ; Governor Johnson explains 
that Boone is a dissenter, 439 ; Board 
of Trade encourages Boone, 456 ; 
elated with success, 461 ; presents 
another memorial, bringing charges 
against Governor Johnson, 462, 463, 
464; Governor Johnson addresses 
Assembly upon subject, 465, 46(5; 
Commons propound questions to, 
refuses to submit to examination, 
467 ; Commons address Governor 
Johnson, also Lords Proprietors on 
his memorial, 467, 468, 469, 470; 
again sent to England, 530; his 
settlement on Tugaloo burned by 
Indians, 54(); Assembly addresses 
letters to Boone and Berresford in 
England, 550; with Berresford ai> 
peals to Royal Government for pro- 
tection of province, 554 ; committee 
of Assembly appointed to correspond 
with, 569; lays before Mr. King ad- 
dress of Representatives and Inhab- 



INDEX 



731 



itants of South Carolina, 570 ; appears 
before Board of Trade, 571, 572; 
urges Board of Trade to get rid of 
charter, 633, 634; mentioned, 666; 
with Barawell, agent of convention, 
procured hearing before Lords Jus- 
tice Regents in Council, 671. 

Bordeaux, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Boston, Mass., mentioned, 7; com- 
merce with, 479. 

Bounetheau, Huguenot family of, 
323 n. 

Bourne, Edward, postmaster, 352. 

Bowman, William, deputy for Lord 
Craven, 124 ; did not come out, 155. 

Boyd, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Boyd, John, member of Assembly, 
231>. 

Bradley, Samuel, charged with being 
one of Kidd's men, 262. 

Bray, Kev. Thomas, library found by 
efforts of, 353; mentioned as Bishop 
of London's commissary in Mary- 
land, 420; founder of William and 
Mary College, Va., and Parochial 
Libraries, 471 ; sends books for lay- 
man's library, 701. 

Bray, William, with wife and children 
put to death by Indians, 534. 

Brayne or Braine, Captain Henry, 
ensign in Sandford's expedition, 82; 
parts company with Sandford's ves- 
sel. Ibid.; Sandford espies and sa- 
lutes him, 87; rejoins Sandford, 88; 
master of the Carolina, 115 ; placed 
under command of West, 116 ; sent 
to Virginia, 136 ; mentioned, 139 ; an 
old colonist, 154 ; John Coming, mate 
of, 162; owner of lot in Old Town, 
163 n. ; accusations against O' Sulli- 
van, 170. 

Brewton, Michael, captain of militia 
of Gibbes party, 491 ; elected powder 
receiver, 582, 583 ; foreman of Grand 
Jury in the pirates' case, 610. 

Brick, bouses to be built of, 573, 574. 

Bridge Town, Barbadoes, description 
of, 3r),'"i. 

Bristol, England, communication with, 
40.".. 

Bristow's Plantation, 282. 

Broad River, Ribault ascends and 



erects stone pillar on, 45 ; Sandford 
names Yeamans Har])or, 87. 

Broughton, Major George, comes to 
tlic defence of Charles Town, 397. 

Broughton, Thomas, mentioned as 
Lieutenant Governor, 35, 36; one of 
the Council who signs Church act, 
406; signs Governor Johnson's re- 
port on condition of colony, 477; 
commissioner of free school, 488; 
elected Governor, 489 ; contest for 
the office, 490, 491 ; mentioned, 497 ; 
commissioned as an assistant judge 
to try pirates, 567 n. ; appointed one 
of Council, 568 ; again on commission 
for trial of pirates, 575 ; commission 
to regulate Indian trade, 626; left 
out of council, 640. 

Buildings, during Proprietary period, 
703, 704. 

Bull, Stephen, master on board Caro- 
lina in fleet in the Downes, 121 ; 
deputy for Lord Ashley, 124 ; writes 
to Lord Ashley, 144 ; mentioned, 155 ; 
member of Grand Council, 161 ; 
owner of lots in Old Town, 164 ; Pro- 
prietors' deputy, 210; disqualified 
from holding office, 231 ; one of 
Archdale's Council, 280 ; applies for 
clergyman, 318, an Indian Trader, 
347 ; mentioned in connection with 
the introduction of rice, 348, 349. 

Bull, William, mentioned as Lieuten- 
ant Governor, 35, 36; a member of 
Council, 642,643, 648. 

Bull, William, son of former, men- 
tioned, 17 ; as Lieutenant Governor, 
35, 36. 

Bull's Island, 125. 

Burke, Priscilla, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164. 

Burnham, Dr. Charles, member of 
committee to revise Fundamental 
Constitution, 293. 

Burroughs, Seaman, captain militia, 
escapes Indian massacre, 534. 

Butler, Richard, member of Com- 
mons, 571 ; member of Council, 642, 
648. 

Buttall, Charles, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Butter, exported to West Indies, 350. 



732 



INDEX 



Cabot, John, mentioned, 40. 

Cabot, Sebastian, mentioned, 40. 

Cacique, Indian, entertains Sandford, 
83, 84, 85, 8(), 87, 88. 

Cacique, Title under Fundamental 
Constitution, HO, i)7, 98 ; member of 
Parliament, 102; appointed, 111; 
each to have a barony, 141 ; men- 
tioned, 176, 258, 291; patent offered 
for £50, 292;, denied legislative 
powers, 293; mentioned, 376, 378, 
539, em ; list of, Appendix IV, 718. 

Caliboug's Sound, Sandford enters and 
describes, 89. 

Callander, nobleman, enters into 
bonds for settlement of Lord Car- 
dross's colony, 195. 

Campbell, Sir George, of Lord Car- 
dross's Company, 195. 

Campbell, Lord William, Governor, 
mentioned, 36. 

Canada, French in, a menace to Eng- 
lish colonies, 4 ; mentioned, 538, 553. 

Canoes, act to prevent stealing of, 
284. 

Canterbury, Archbishop of, 411, 439, 
471. 

Cantey, Captain, of Barnwell's expedi- 
tion to North Carolina, 499. 

Cape Fear, Colony of, 92, 93, 156. 

Cape Fear, Sir John Yeamans arrives 
at, and explores, 80 ; Sandford sails 
from, 82; returns to, 92 ; mentioned 
113, 116, 176 ; visits of pirates to, 204 ; 
mentioned, 235, 236, 286; pirates 
driven from Providence swarm in, 
589; Rhett's expedition against pi- 
rates at, 596, 597, 598 ; nest of pirates 
at, broken up, 621. 

Cardross, Lord, colony of, mentioned, 
6; organizes Scotch colony to settle 
in Carolina, 195 ; to be independent 
of Charles Town, 19(5; mentioned, 
203,210,214; retires, 215; Governor 
Morton warned by him of Spanish 
invasion, 216 ; colony destroyed, 217, 
219; mentioned, 302, 494, 547, 575, 
684. 

Caribbees, mentioned, 187. 

Caribbee Islands, charter of all given 
to the Earl of Carlisle, 54; men- 
tioned, 75; exports to, 189. 



Carlisle, Earl of, charter given to, 
54 ; mentioned, 58, 65 ; complications 
as to Barbadoes, growing out of, 
()8, 69, 70. 

Carolana, Province of, grant of, to 
General Robert Heath, 54; distin- 
guished from grant of Carolina, 55 ; 
mentioned, 64. 

Carolina, Province of, grant of, 56; I 
the model of, 57, 58; territory de- 
scribed in charter of 1663, 64 ; pro- 
visions of, 65. 

Carolina Coffee House, Amy treats 
emigrants at, 271 ; Amy renders im- 
portant services at, 273, 292, 316; 
John Barnwell writes from, 577; 
mentioned, 676. 

Carolina, The Ship, one of the fleet 
sent out by the Proprietors, 115; 
at anchor in the Downes, 120; pas- 
sengers in, 121 ; reaches Bermuda, 
123 ; Hugh Carteret's account of trip 
in, 125 ; sent to Virginia and return, 
131; mentioned, 137, 138; sails for , 
Barbadoes, 143 ; mentioned, 162, 180. 

Caroline, Fort, 48. 

Carpenters, Governor West suspends 
all occupations but carpenters and 
smiths, 147 ; wages of, 482. 

Carroll, B. R., Collections of, 18. 

Carteret, Sir George, one of the Pro- 
prietors, 56; sketch of, 63; cape 
named in honor of, 92; Admiral, i 
under Fundamental Constitutions, 
110; Deputy of, 124; death of, 269; 
mentioned, 526. 

Carteret, Sir George, son of former, 
succeeds his father as Proprietor, 
269; represented by Earl of Bath, 
291. 

Carteret, Hugh, account of trip from 
Bermuda, 125; member of Parlia- 
ment, 134; owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164. 

Carteret, James, mentioned. 111; 
made Landgrave, 141 : see List of 
Landgraves, Ai)pendix IV, 717. 

Carteret, Lord John, a minor repre- 
sented by Lord Granville, 387 ; men- 
tioned, 428, 429, 438; represented 
by Lord Craven, 459; becomes of 
age, 503, 504; chosen Palatine, 526; 



INDEX 



733 



addresses Lords of Trade, 538, 540, 
541 ; mentioned, 571 ; appears before 
Lords of Trade, 572 ; signs order to 
dissolve Assembly, 626, 627 ; men- 
tioned, 635 ; refers Mr. Yonge, agent 
of Governor and Council to other 
Proprietors, 636 ; not a party to the 
surrender of the charter, 678 ; agree- 
ment between the King and himself, 
679, 680. 

Gary, Colonel, of North Carolina, 
mentioned, 497, 502. 

Cary, Captain George, accompanies 
Sandford, 82, 84. 

Cary, Thomas, one of Archdale's coun- 
cil, 280 ; becomes surety to Governor 
Nathaniel Johnson, 390. 

Cassor, Greater or Lesser, territory 
of, 179. 

Catawbas, under Captain Cantey, on 
Barnwell's expedition, 499; no as- 
sistance from, 536. 

Cattle, Proprietors refuse to send out 
any, 187 ; rapid increase of, 188 ; 
black cattle, 284 ; great increase of, 
351, 352. 

Caurituck Inlet, resort of pirates, 
296. 

Cavaliers, mentioned, 12, 317. 

Chalmers, George, author, 18, 92. 

Charles I, grant of Carolana to Robert 
Heath, 49; grant of Barbadoes to 
Earl of Carlisle, 54, 57 ; mentioned, 
64, 67, 68. 

Charles II, grant of Carolina to Pro- 
prietors (1663), 56; mentioned, 57, 
64 ; grants second charter (1665) , 
61 ; Sandford takes possession in his 
name, 83; mentioned, 179; pirates 
encouraged by, 205 ; Henry Morgan 
knighted by. Ibid.; death of, 209; 
Habeas Corpus Act of, 247 ; men- 
tioned, 248, 249; encouragement to 
pirates, 255 ; shares booty, 256, 262 ; 
furnishes transportation to Hugue- 
nots, 322; mentioned, 402, 409, 433. 

Charles IX, gives permission to es- 
tablish a colony of Huguenots, 44; 
province named in honor of, 48. 

Charles, Fort, Ribault leaves garri- 
son at, 45; abandoned, 47. 

Charleston Library, Ms. copy of 



Locke's Fundamental Constitutions 
in, 105. 

Charles Town, one of principal points 
of settlement of U. S., 1 ; colonists 
at, distant from others, 2,4; settle 
around the town, 6 ; for many years 
embodied all of Carolina, 7; town 
laid out on Ashley River, 145 ; first 
Parliament held at, 156; directions 
as to laying out, 161 ; to be called 
Charles Town, 182 ; description of, 
183; a minister in, 184; Archdale 
instructed to fortify, 279; election 
to be held at, 282 ; population of, and 
streets in, 341, 342, 343; trade of, 
345; fortifications of, 395; attack 
upon, by French and Spaniards, 396, 
397, 398, 399, 400 ; made into a parish 
by the name of St. Philip's, 416; 
houses to be of brick, 573 ; fortifica- 
tions of, 579 ; high rate of provisions 
in, 580 ; houses and buildings in, 703, 
704. 

Charters, governments in the nature 
of, 52 ; Queen Elizabeth to Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, 52 ; to Sir Walter 
Raleigh, 53 ; James I to Thomas 
Gates, 53, 54 ; to Earl of Marl- 
borough, 54; Charles I to Earl of 
Carlisle, 54; to Robert Heath, 54, 
55 ; to Lord Baltimore, 56 ; to Sir 
Ferdinando Gorges, 56; provisions 
of charter to Sir Robert Heath, 58, 
59, 60 ; first charter to Proprietors 
(1663), 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68; 
second charter (1665), 76, 77, 78, 79; 
Royal charter mentioned, 197, 226, 
290, 291, 410. 

Chastaigner, Alex. Thette, member of 
Assembly, 2;!9; grant to, 322 n. 

Chattahoochee River, fight with Ind- 
ians upon, 380. 

Cherokees, Indians, 536, 546. 

Chester, county Palatine, 59. 

Chevalier, Huguenot family, 323 n. 

Chicken, George, one of the Goose 
Creek men, 'I'AH; Captain, defeats 
the Indians, 536 ; Colonel, exjiedition 
against, 546; on commission for 
trial of pirates, 609 ; mentioned, 684. 

Chicora, the country of, 42. 

Chief Justice, Bohun sent out as, 297, 



734 



INDEX 



298 ; Nicholas Trott, 390, 529 ; Robert 
Gibbes, 465; see Appendix VI, list 
of. 

Chief Justice under Fundamental 
Constitutions, 141. 

Chief Marshal under Fundamental 
Constitutions. 141. 

Chocta-Kuchy Kiver, 480. 

Christ Church Parish, established, 
447; representation of, 5G1, 563. 

Chufytachygs, Emperor of, 137. 

Church Acts, mentioned, 37; intro- 
duced, 40(5; preamble to, 407, 408: 
provisions of, 409, Act for estab- 
lishment of religious worship, 41(5 ; 
provisions of, 420, 421, 422; Act es- 
tablishing a Lay Board, 441, 442, 
443 ; Governor recommends repeal of, 
446; repealed, 447; another passed, 
447, 448, 449 ; Act of 1712 upon same 
subject, 508, 5(50. 

Churne, Anthony, suit of, 149. 

Church of England, established, 67; 
danger to, 427 ; controversies in re- 
gard to, originating in England, 439; 
mentioned, 446, 460; its vrork in 
province, 698. 

Churches, mentioned, 183, 331, 334, 
33r,, 33(5, 337, 695, 696, 697, 698, 
699. 

Churchmen, Archdale's description of 
those in Carolina, 315 ; from Barba- 
does, .329; number of, 338. 

Clarendon County, laid out, 75, 76. 

Clarendon, Earl of, one of the Pro- 
prietors, 5(5; sketch of, 61; men- 
tioned, 109; enters into agreement 
for carrying on Indian trade, 177 ; 
differences with Lord Ashley, 255; 
death of, in exile, 268; disposition 
of his share, 271, 387, 459, 460, 674, 
675; bis policy mentioned, 404. 

Clayton, Alexius, trustee to accept 
surrender, 679. 

Cleland, from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Clergy, character of, 419; mainten- 
ance of, .542, 700. 

Climate, accounts of, 186. 

Cochran, Captain John, sent to learn 
cause of Indian discontent, 533; 
slain, 534. 

Cochran, James, protest against 



Church Act, 409; signs address to 
King, 571. 

Cochran, Sir John, one of Lord Car- 
dross's company, 195. 

Codification of Laws, Trott's, 517, 
518, 519, .")20, .521, 522, 523. 

Coin, Spanish, Act fixing value of, 
303. 

Cole, John, servant, 150. 

Cole, Michael, Captain, commander 
frigate Sarah, commissioned to try 
pirates, 575, 

Cole, Richard, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 1(54. 

Coligny, Admiral, colony of French 
Protestants, 44, 45, 46, 47. 

Colleton, Sir Charles, protests against 
Church Act, 409, 410; Marston 
charged with slandering, 422. 

Colleton, James, mentioned, 122; ar- 
rives as Governor and Landgrave, 
and stops expedition to St. Augus- 
tine, 218 ; his devotion to interest of 
Proprietors, 224 ; his instructions, 
225 ; acts passed during his adminis- 
tration. Ibid.; produces letter of 
Proprietors in regard to Fundamen- 
tal Constitution, 226; further in- 
structions of Proprietors to, 227; 
declares martial law, 228 ; is ban- 
ished, 231 ; Ludwell charged to 
inquire into his conduct, 236 ; men- 
tioned, 24(5, 266, 292, 327 n., 497. 

Colleton, Sir John, one of the Propri- 
etors, 5(5; sketch of, (53; mentioned, 
69; addresses communications to 
Duke of Albemarle about settlement 
of Carolina, 70, 71, 78; death of, 
alluded to, 122, 271; mentioned, 268, 
271; mentioned as from Barbadoes, 
.327. 

Colleton, Sir Peter, son of Sir John, 
AVill Owen deputy of. 136; con- 
tributes to fund for Indian trade, 
177; mentioned, 218; death of , 271 ; 
member of Royal African Co., 357; 
mentioned, (574. 

Colleton, Sir John, son of Sir Peter, 
minor represented by Wm. Thorn- 
burg, 277 ; becomes of age, 387, 388 ; 
mentioned, 428; addresses Board of 
Trade, 538; signs order dissolving 



INDEX 



735 



Assembly, 627 ; mentioned, 635 ; sur- 
renders charter, 679. 

Colleton, Thomas, Proprietors' fleet 
consigned to, on reaching Barbadoes, 
116; influence of, to secure emi- 
grants, 122 ; bill for sugar drawn 
on, 139, 140 ; with Mr. Stode fits out 
vessel for Carolina, 143. 

Colleton, County of, laid out, 193; 
election to be held in, 198 ; men- 
tioned, 199 ; number of representa- 
tives, 236; names of, 239; election 
to be held in, 282 ; dissenters settle 
in, 329 ; representation and address 
by members of, 378, 379, protest 
against action of Commons, 384; 
they write to Proprietors, 385 ; op- 
pose naturalization of Huguenots, 
407; send Mr. Ash to Europe, 412; 
John Ash, son of former member 
for, 445 ; apportionment of represen- 
tatives, 559. 

Colleton, Families of, several from 
tlie Dorchester colony, 327. 

Colletons, The, mentioned, 154 

Colonists, the landing of, 125, 129. 

Columbus, Christopher, course of, 39 ; 
mentioned, 44, 45. 

Combahee River, mentioned, 126, 179, 
236, 535, 555. 

Comerton, Philip, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164. 

Coming, Affra, joins her husband John 
in surrendering land for town, 163; 
writes letter to her sister, 308 ; gives 
lands for a glebe to the Church, 333 ; 
mentioned, 697. 

Coming, John, mate of Captain Hal- 
sted of the Carolina, 156, 162; sur- 
renders land for the town, 163 ; owner 
of lot in Old Town, 164; mentioned, 
.3.33 ; plantation of, 345. 

Coming's Point, town laid out on, 
163. 

Commerce, Gov. Johnson's report on, 
477, 481, 483; pirates prey on, 565. 

Commissary, ecclesiastical office of, 
471. 

Commons of England, Tories attempt 
to control by Test and Corporation 
Act, 404, 405, 407, 426, 427. 

Common Law, adopted, 520. 



Common Prayer, Book of, the use of 
prescribed, 409. 

Compton, Dr., Bishop of London, 333 
71., 418. 

Conant, Richard, chosen member of 
Council, 161 ; appointed Captain, 171. 

Cond6, Admiral, death of, mentioned, 
319. 

Confederate State, mentioned, 77. 

Congarees Indians, mentioned, 537. 

Congregationalists and Presbyterians 
form White Meeting, or Indepen- 
dence Church, 334 ; mentioned, 391, 
434, 698, 699. 

Connecticut, mentioned, 3, 5, 6, 294, 
296. 

Conveyances, form of, objected to, 241. 

Convention, Assembly resolves itself 
into, 655 ; elects and proclaims a 
governor, Ibid. ; but soon votes 
itself; again an assembly, 656. 

Cook, Captain, reports pirates, 597, 
598. 

Cooper River, or Wando, banks to be 
examined for suitable place for 
town, 146, 182; French settle on, 
233. 

Coosaw River, Ribault ascends, 44; 
mentioned, 555. 

Corbin, Rev. William, mentioned, 
333 n. 

Cordes, the Hiiguenot family of, 323 w. 

Cordes, Anthony, Dr., 337. 

Corn, exports of, 3.50. 

Cotton, one of the plants which West 
was instructed to take with him for 
trial, 116 ; exported before end of 
17th century, 348 ; cotton goods im- 
ported from West Indies, 478 ; men- 
tioned, ()88. 

Courlis, Daniel, member of Assem- 
bly, 2:59 n. 

Courtenay, Hon. W. R., mentioned, 
17, 30; Commissioner of Public 
Records, 31 ; historical work of, 
31, 32. 

Courts, held in Charles Town, 7 ; 
County Court under Fundamental 
Constitution, 98; eight Supreme 
Courts under same, 99; Precinct 
Courts, 101 ; for trial of suwill and 
mean causes, 225 ; same person judge 



736 



INDEX 



and sheriff of, 241; jurisdiction to 
pass upon acts of Assembly ques- 
tioned, 242; alleged scenes of alter- 
cation, 252; system of, 691, 692, 
693. 

Couterier, Huguenot family of, 323 )i. 

Goxe, Daniel, description of Carolana, 
sketch of, 55 and n. 

Craggs, Secretary, mentioned, 634, 
(J()9 n., 070 n. 

Craven, Anthony, mentioned, 547. 

Craven County, laid out, 193 ; French 
and Swiss settle in, 233; Repre- 
sentatives of, 236, 238, 239, 282; 
mentioned, 329; part of, made into 
a parish of St. James, Santee, 447 ; 
Representatives of, 559. 

Craven, Hon. Charles, mentioned, 249 ; 
testimony as to character of clergy, 
419 ; appointment as Governor, 491 ; 
order to, in regard to Gibbes, 492 ; 
commissioned, 496; assumes govern- 
ment, 505 ; speech to Assembly, 505, 
506, 507 ; his measures, 508 ; conduct 
of, upon Indian uprising, 533, 534, 
535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540 ; negotia- 
tions with Gov. Spotswood of Vir- 
ginia for assistance, 545 ; meets new 
outbreak, 546; leaves for England, 
548; mentioned, 549, 564, 568; his 
character, 690. 

Craven, William Earl, one of the 
Proprietors, 56 ; sketch of, 61 ; dep- 
uty for, 124, 156 ; writes to Board of 
Trade about pirates, 206, 219; last 
survivors of Proprietox'S, 271 ; men- 
tioned, 273; attends Board of Pro- 
prietors, 276, 277; death of, 290; 
mentioned, 526, 711. 

Craven, Lord William, succeeds to 
Proprietorship, 290 ; mentioned, 387, 
428; approves Church acts, 429; 
mentioned, 438 ; becomes Palatine, 
458; mentioned, 459; instructions 
to Gov. Tynte, 486 ; death of, 504 ; 
mentioned, 526, 716. 

Craven, Lord William, son of above, 
succeeds to Proprietorship; repre- 
sented by Fulwar Skipwith, 627, 
635 ; surrenders to Crown, 679. 

Creek Indians ; battle with Spaniards 
and Apalachis, 380. 



Croft, John, assistant judge to try 
pirates, (ilO. 

Cromwell, Oliver, mentioned, 57, 64, 
213. 

Crosskeyes, Joseph, commissioner of 
Library, 353. 

Crossley, servant, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 

Culpepper, John, comes from Barba- 
does, 144 ; appointed arbitrator, 149 ; 
appointed Surveyor and makes 
sketch of Charles Town, 160 ; owner 
of lot in Charles Town, 164 ?i. ; al- 
leged disturbance by, 169; men- 
tioned, 331. 

Curacoa, trade with, 295, 479. 

Currency, 482, 483. See Bills of Credit 
and Coin. 

Cussatoes Indians, mentioned, 177. 

Cuthbert, Captain William, on com- 
mission to try pirates, 567, 575. 

Cutler, Thomas, Proprietors send him 
out to search for mines, 348. 

Dalcho, Rev. Frederick, M.D., work 
of, 25 ; opinion as to yellow fever, 310. 

Dale, Thomas, killed by Indians, 393. 

Dalton, Joseph, elected Representa- 
tive, 125 ; joins in application for 
minister, 132; mentioned, 136; ac- 
count, as Secretary of colony, 144 ; 
complains of O'Sullivan, 156; owner 
of lot in Old Town, 164; application 
for clergyman referred to, 318 ; 
writes in reference to Dr. AVood- 
Avard, 346. 

Daniel, Robert, comes from Barba- 
does, 182 ; excluded from general 
pardon, 246 ; consulted by Proprie- 
tors on Fundamental Constitution, 
291 ; copy sent out by him ; he is 
made Landgrave, 292; mentioned, 
327 n., 367, 375, 377 ; takes part in 
expedition to St. Augustine, 381, 
382, 383; appointed Deputy Gover- 
nor of North Carolina, 461 ; move- 
ment against, 461 ; appointed Deputy 
Governor of South Carolina, 535; 
assumes government, 548 ; measures 
of, 555 ; purchases Rebel Scots, 558 ; 
joins Boone and Berresford in ap- 
peal to Royal Government, 569, 570 ; 
address in regard to application for 



INDEX 



737 



man of war, action, 574; in regard 
to pirates, 575 ; mentioned, 684, 690. 

Danson versus Trott, case of, 271, 
673, ()74, 675, 676. 

Danson, John, Archdale conveys share 
to, 460; mentioned, 465, 627, 635, 
()74, 676. 

Danson, Mary, widow of John, im- 
prisoned for refusal to obey decree, 
676 ; appeals to House of Lords, and 
sets aside decree, Ihld. 

Darien Colony, from wreck of, 310. 

D'Arsens, John, grant to, 266, 322 n. 

D'Arsens, widow of John, marries 
Thomas Smith, 266 n. 

Davis, Professor R. Means, commis- 
sioner of Public Records, 32. 

Davis, William, member of Assembly, 
239 ;/. 

Dawes, Captain Philip, on commis- 
sion to try pirates, 575, 609. 

Dawhow River, 85. 

Deane, Samuel, on commission to try 
pirates, 567, 575, 609. 

Dearsly Creek, 399. 

De Cossey, Stephen James, pirate, 
575, 605. 

Deeds, Recording of, 158 and 7i. 

Deer, iss. 

De Genillat, grant to, 322; family of, 
323 H. 

De Graffenried, Baron, 496, 497, 503 ; 
Landgrave, 718. 

Delaware, mentioned, 25, 56,229. 

De la Pierre, Rev., 336, 339. 

De la Conseillere, Benj., member of 
Commons, 571 ; commissioner to try 
pirates, 609, 642, 643, 648. 

De la Conseillere, Huguenot family 
of, :'.2:'. 11. 

De Leiseline, Huguenot family of, 
323;/. 

De Leon, Juan Ponce, 40. 

De Lysle, Huguenot family of, .323 ». 

Demonstrations of State of South 

Carolina, 5.54 //. 
De Mont, Francis, pirate, 575. 
Denner. Laur, oi)poses Church acts, 409. 
Dennis, Benjamin, schoolmaster, 495, 

510. 
Departing the Province, regulations 

in regard to, KJl, 162. 
3b 



Deprivation, Ecclesiastical, 441, 442. 

De Richhourg, Rev. P., 339. 

Devolution of Proprietary Shares, 
714, 715, 716. 

Deyos, Richard, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164 >i., 181. 

Dickeson, plantation of, 345. 

Dill, Captain, of Barbadian sloop, 597. 

Dissenters in Colleton County, 329, 
374, 391, 407; majority in colony, 
440 ; opposition to naturalization 
of Huguenots, Ibid. ; some leave 
colony, 453. 

Divorce, none in South Carolina, 11 
and n. 

D'Harriette, Huguenot family of, 
323 n. 

Dods worth, Anthony, commission to, 
;;79. 

Dolmans, Sir Francis, transports 
French families to South Carolina, 
180. 

Donne, Robert, comes out as servant 
to Stephen Bull, 121 ; elected mem- 
ber of council, 125 ; mentioned as 
Dun, 136 ; Captain Lieutenant, cash- 
iered, 150; again captain, 171. 

Dorchester, colony at, 326, 327, 345; 
meeting house at, 707 ; tower of 
church standing at, IhUL 

Douglass, John, schoolmaster, 510, 511 . 

Douxsaint, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Drake, Jonathan, member of Com- 
mons, 571. 

Drake, Captain, commands company 
during French and Sjmnish invasion, 
399. 

Drayton. John, author, 24. 

Drayton, Thomas, comes from Barba- 
(locs, 1(S2. .327 }i. 

Drayton, William Henry, mentioned, 
371. 

Dublin, communication with, 403. 

Du Bois, Treasurer, sends rice to 
(Miarles Town, 371 ; Huguenot fam- 
ily of, .323 n. 

Du Bose, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Du Bourdieu, Huguenot family of, 
;;23//. 

Du Gue, James, grant to, 322 n. 

Duhare, country of, 42. 

Dunlop, Alexander, mentioned, 215. 



738 



INDEX 



Dunlop, Rev. William, a deputy, 210; 
sent by Cai'dross to Governor of 
Charles Town for guns, 214, 215, 21«) ; 
of committee on Fundamental Con- 
stitutions, 225 ; mentioned, 334, 335. 

Dunlop, family of, 196. 

Du Pre, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Du Pont, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Durham. Bishop of, 59. 

Durham County, Palatine, 59. 

Durham, David, member of Com- 
mons, 571. 

Dutarque, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Dutch mentioned, 2, 49, 56; settlers 
from New York, 145; West India 
trade with, 211. 

Duties upon negro slaves imported, 
383; on liquors, negroes, etc., 557, 
584, 585, 626, 627. 

Eagle, The Galley, captured by pi- 
rates, 609, 615. 

Eden, Governor, of North Carolina, 
the pirate Bonnet surrendered to, 
589, 595. 

Edisto (Edistoh), Sandford enters 
and explores, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86; men- 
tioned, 91, 92; Maurice Mathews in 
Bermudian sloop reaches, 127 ; Pro- 
prietors settle plantation upon, 175, 
176; Indians cede lands upon, 179; 
Morton and his party settle on, 198 ; 
Spaniards land on, 216; mentioned, 
230, 236 ; Pirate Yeates puts into, 
598. 

Education schools set up by Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel, 
449; free school erected, 487, 488, 
511, 512, 700, 701. 

Edwards, William, member of As- 
sembly, opposed Church acts, 409. 

Elections, first in Carolina held at 
Port Royal, 125 ; censured by Will 
Owen, 126 ; Sayles's instructions as 
to, 133; Owen holds an, 134; held 
at Charles Town, 198; ordered to be 
held at Charles Town and London, 
Ibid. ; voting by ballot, 199 ; con- 
tinued to be held at Charles Town, 
200 ; act to regulate, 422, 423 ; voting 
by ballot, 423, 428 ; provisions in re- 
gard to, 558, 559 ; to be held in each 
parish, 560; by ballot, 561 ; church- 



wardens managers of, 561 ; quali- 
fications of voters, 562, 573 ; law 
of, revised, 625; act repealed, 628; 
course of Proprietors in regard to, 
reviewed, 672. 

Elizabeth, Queen, charters of. See 
Charters. 

Ellicot, Joseph, member of Assembly, 
239 n. 

Elliot, William, comes from Barba- 
does, 327 n.; gives lot for Baptist 
Church, 698. 

Ely, John, commissioned Receiver 
General, 301 ; death of, 309 ; men- 
tioned, 371. 

Emperor, The Ship, captured by pi- 
rates, 598. 

Enacting clause of statutes, form of, 
265. 

English, Henroydah, one of the Goose 
Creek men, 238 n. ; member of Com- 
mons, 505 n. 

English statute, mention of, in peti- 
tion of Assembly, 242 ; application 
of, to colonies questioned, 244, 517 ; 
act to put in force several of, 519, 
520, 521, 522, 523. 

Erandos, Emmanuel, pirate, 575. 

Evans, Captain George, commands 
Granville Bastion, 398, 400. 

Eve, Colonel Jacob, member of Com- 
mons, 505 n.\ plantation destroyed 
by Indians, 546. 

Everleigh, Samuel, committee of cor- 
respondence, 517 ; commission to try 
pirates, 567. 

Exclusion Bill, mentioned, 402. 

Experiment, The Brigantine, Allen 
Archer, commander, 567. 

Exports, Governor Johnson's report 
on, 478. 

Farr, John, deputy of Proprietors, 
210; committee to consider Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 225. 

Faucheraud, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Faysoux, Huguenot family of, 323 7i. 

Fees of officers, 241. 

Fenwicke, name of, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Fenwicke, Captain, commands com- 
pany during invasion of French and 
Spaniards, 398, 399, 400. 



INDEX 



739 



Fenwicke, Kobert, arrives in Loyal 
JcDtiaica, and gives security, 261 n. 

Fidling, Francis, postmaster, 352. 

Fitzpatrick, Brian, a noted villain, 
170. 

Flambourg, The Man-of-War, 623,663. 

Fleet, sails from the Downes, 121. 

Flint River, Indian fight upon, 380. 

Florida, mentioned, 40, 555, bound- 
ary of Carolina, 64, 683; claimed 
part of Carolina, 130, 248. 

Foison, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Foreign Attachment Act, 515. 

Fortune, The Frigate, 567 n. 

Foster, name of, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Foster, John, member of Council, 156 ; 
owner of lot in Old Tovt^n, 164 n. 

Fox, name of, from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Fox, George, mentioned, 272. 

France, mentioned, 394, 453, 553, 683. 

Franchomme, Charles, grant to, 323 n. 

Francis I, King of France, mentioned, 
43. 

Francis, The Ship, captured by pi- 
rates, 5!)6. 604, (J17. 

Fraser, John, warned of Indian upris- 
ing, 532. 

Freemen of colony, election by, 103, 
133. 

Free school, erected. See Education. 

French, on the Mississippi, 3; danger 
from, 9, 258 ; mentioned, 38, 452, 486, 
553; invasion by, with Spaniards, 
394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 399, 400, 401 ; 
renewed danger from, 446. 

French church, when built, 335 ; Isaac 
Mazyck contributes to, 697, 698. 

Frenchmen, English colonists object 
to franchise of, 238; dissenters op- 
pose, .391. 

French Protestants (or Huguenots), 
mentioned, 8, 37; Ribault's colony 
of, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 ; De Fontenay's 
proposed colony of, 49 ; Petit's col- 
ony of, 180 ; grants, 181 ; mentioned, 
233, 238; Sothell admits as free-born 
citizens, 233, 234; people Craven 
County, 238 ; members of Assembly, 
239; numbers of, 304, 319; settle 
Orange Quarter, 319; first grants 
to, for valuable consideration, 322; 



names of families, 323 n. ; numbers 
of, 324 n. ; church of, .335; pastors 
of, 336 ; settlement on Cooper River, 
337; number of, 3;>8 ; mentioned, 
350; dissenters object to representa- 
tion of, 374, 391 ; relations of church- 
men to, 391, 392; revocation of Edict 
of Nantes mentioned, 402; not dis- 
senters, 404 ; opposition of dissenters 
to, 407, 440 ; settlement of, in Orange 
Quarter, made into parish of St. 
Dennis, 447 ; three of church com- 
missioners, 448 n. ; dissenters, oppo- 
sition to, 465 ; Huguenots in North 
Carolina, slaughter of, 497 ; piety of 
Huguenots, 695 ; ministers of, 699. 

Froude, J., English in West Indies, 
quoted, 356. 

Fuller, William, member of Com- 
mons, 505 n. 

Fundamental Constitutions, drawn 
by Locke and Shaftesbury, 94 ; pro- 
visions of, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 
102, 103, 104; Locke's responsibility 
for church clause, 105; other pro- 
visions examined, 106, 107, 108, 109 ; 
organizations of Palatine's Court 
under, 110 ; never received assent of 
freemen, 110 ; marked effect of. 111 ; 
Landgraves appointed not in accord- 
ance with provisions of charter, 111 ; 
Ms. copy of, in Charleston Library, 
105 ; no one allowed grant of land 
until he subscribed Constitutions, 
120 ; first Landgraves appointed 
under^ not inhabitants, 141, 142 ; Yea- 
mans directed to introduce, 161 ; 
another set sent out, 192, 193 ; third 
set sent out, 207 ; representative re- 
fuses to subscribe, 210; committee 
of Assembly appointed to consider, 
225 ; Proprietors repudiated first set, 
226; the people resist, 227; Sothell 
claims goverimient under, as a Pro- 
prietor, 230, 232; Proprietors agree 
to abandon, 247 ; disregard pro- 
visions of, 275 ; new laws to be as 
near as possible to, 278 ; Proprietors 
devoted to, 314 ; provisions in regard 
to religion, .329; opposition to, 364; 
the last of, 378 ; mentioned, 402, 410, 
423, 433, 523, ()72, 683, 685, (;S6, 691. 



740 



INDEX 



Gaillard, Joachim, o^rant to, 322 7i. 

Gaillard, Richard, ^raiit to, 181. 

Gaillard. Hu.mieiiot family of, 323 n. 

Gale, Christopher, sent from North 
Carolina to apply for assistance 
against Indians, 49(!, 498. 

Game, al)undance of, 188. 

Garden, Alexander, Dr., work of, 24. 

Gates, Sir Thomas, grant to, 54. 

Gendron, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Gendron, John, member of Assembly, 
239; George I mentioned, 38; pro- 
claimed, 527, 528; mentioned, (351; 
Commons call upon Governor John- 
son to take upon him government 
in his name, 052, 653 ; John Barn- 
well sent to England to appeal to, 
G56, GG5; in Hanover, 666 ; agents of 
new Government in absence of, pro- 
cure hearing before Regents, 671, 672, 
673 ; full legal title not settled in, 680. 

George Town, when settled, 493 r?,.,494. 

Georgia, mentioned, 6, 77, 578. 

Gibbes, Benjamin, comes from Barba- 
does, ;>27 //. 

Gibbes, Robert, one of the Goose Creek 
men, 238 ; member of Assembly, 239 ; 
comes from Barbadoes, 327 n. ; plan- 
tation of, 345 ; appointed Chief Jus- 
tice, 465 ; chosen Governor upon 
death of Tynte, 489; contest over, 
490, 491 ; declared guilty of bribery, 
492 ; but holds the office, address to 
Assembly, 492, 493; attention paid 
to education under, 494; mentioned, 
497 ; receives memorial from North 
Carolina, and lays same before As- 
sembly. 498; mentioned, 689, 690, 692. 

Gibbes, Dr. Robert W., mentioned, 27. 

Gibbon, name from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Gibbon William, commissioner of free 
school, 48S ; commissioner for build- 
ing St. Philip's Church, 495; member 
of Commons, 505 n. ; on committee 
of correspondence with agent in 
England, 517 ; member of Commons 
signs address to the King, 571 ; asks 
compensation for furnishing council 
room. 63S. 

Gibson, Captain James, commander 
of ship, transports Scotch rebels, 196 ; 
ill treatment of them, 197; com- 



mands the Rising S^in, and lost off 
Charles Town l)ar, 310, 311. 

Gibson, William, owner of vessel, 
196. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, grant to, 5. 

Gilbertson, James, member of As- 
sembly, 239. 

Gilchrist, James, arrives in Loyal 
JanKiicd, and gives security', 261. 

Giles. Thomas, accompanies Sandford, 
Sl', .S3. 

Gilman, of Lord Cardross's company, 
19.^). 

Girard Peter, security for Daniel 
Horry, 261 ; furnishes Randolph 
table of French Protestants, 324, 325. 

Giradeau, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Glen Governor, mentioned, 35. 

Godfrey, Colonel John, comes from 
Barbadoes, 143; appointed to view 
Wando River, 146 ; commissioned 
captain, 147; an old colonist, 154; 
member of Council, 156; a deputy, 
161 ; appointed Lieutenant Colonel, 
170, 171 ; advances against Span- 
iards, 171 ; member of Coiincil, 197, 
210 ; threatened by Proprietors, 219 ; 
mentioned among those from Bar- 
badoes, 327 71. ; plantation of, 345. 

Godin, Benjamin, one of the Goose 
Creek men, 238 n. ; member of Com- 
mons, 505 n. 

Godolphin, Lord, mentioned, 389. 

Golden Islands, of Azilia, 577. 

Goose Creek, church upon, 416; In- 
dians attack inhabitants, 536. 

Goose Creek Men, Governor Ludwell 
warned to beware, 237 ; assessment 
list of, 238 71. ; Ludwell again 
warned to avoid, 265 ; some of them 
Barbadians. 327; mentioned, 689. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, grant to, 56 ; 
appointed Attorney General, but did 
not accept, 2,59. 

Gospel, Society for Propagation of, 
organized, 338 ; its intluence in this 
colonj^, 339; its missionaries and 
schools, 339, 340; libraries estab- 
lished by, 354; Rev. Samuel Thomas 
sent out by, 411 ; objects to Church 
acts, 439, 445 ; mentioned, 453 ; urges 
want of bishops, 470; free school 



INDEX 



741 



assisted by, 494 ; South Carolina 
its first field, 699, 700. 

Gourdine, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Gourges, Chevalier de, avenges mas- 
sacre of Meuendez, 48. 

Governors, usually made Landgraves, 
111 ; Proprietors seek to have made 
Vice Admirals, but Royal Goverii- 
meut refuses, 296 ; required to give 
security, 297 ; list of. Appendix, 719, 
720. 

Graeme, Chief Justice, mentioned, 36. 

Grand Council, composition of, under 
Fundamental Constitutions, 100 ; 
powers of, 100, 101 ; under Tem- 
porary Laws, 140, 141 ; power to 
make peace or war, 178 ; to meet at 
Oyster Point, 182 ; allowed to i^ro- 
pose to Parliament matter for con- 
sideration, 192 ; Elizabeth Lining set 
at liberty by, 197 ; Lord Cardross 
claims coordinate authority with, 
214; all powers of, for time vested 
in Governor Morton, 217 ; Governor 
Colleton refuses to allow delegates 
of people to act upon any measure 
until passed on by, 227 ; issues order 
for better observance of Lord's day, 
263 ; Woodward convicted of misde- 
meanor by, 346, 347. 

Grandy, The River, mentioned, 82. 

Grange, Hugh, commissioner of free 
schools, 488. 

Granville, Lord John, succeeds his 
father as Palatine, 387 ; mentioned, 
391 ; under his direction attempt 
made to exclude dissenters from 
Government, 394, 405 ; Mr. Boone 
appears before, and is rebuffed, 428, 
429; mentioned, 438, 681, 711; death 
of, 465. 

Gray, Thomas, overseer to Sir John 
Yeamans, comes from Barbadoes, 
143; mentioned, 145; becomes Cap- 
tain, appointed to view Wando 
River, 146, 147 ; sued before Graud 
Council, 149; sues Sir John Yea- 
mans, 150; an old colonist, 154; 
member of Coum^il, 15(); a Deputy, 
161 ; owner of lot in Old Town, 164; 
appointed Major and advances to 
meet Spaniards, 171 ; charges against, 



173; mentioned as coming from 
Barbadoes, 327 n. ; plantation of, 
345. 

Green, Plantation of, 345. 

Greene, General Nathanael, men- 
tioned, 24. 

Greg, Percy, author, quoted, 13. 

Gregg, Rev. Alexander, author, 29. 

Grimball, Paul, a deputy, 210 ; house 
sacked by Spaniards, 216 ; on com- 
mittee to consider Fundamental Con- 
stitutions, 225; disqualified from 
holding office, 231 ; one of Arch- 
dale's Council, 280; plantation of, 
345. 

Grinard, Jacob, with Rene Petit, brings 
out colony of Huguenots, 180; men- 
tioned, 402. 

Gualdape or Duharhe, country of, 42. 

Guerard, Jacob, invents Pendulum 
engine for husking rice, 349. 

Guerard, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Guerin, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Guttery, Gilbert, appointed Health 
Officer, 513. 

Guy, Rev. William, sent out as school- 
master, 495 ; escapes Indian mas- 
sacre, 534; mentioned, 702. 

Habeas Corpus Act, Assembly passes, 
247 ; Proprietors disallow as in 
force without action of Assembly, 
247, 248; question as to, 248, 249; 
passage of, in connection with pirates, 
252, 253, 255; approved by Pro- 
prietors, 517. 

Hall, Arthur, member of Commons, 
505 n. ; signs address to the King, 
571 )}. 

Hall, Captain Fayrer, Governor John- 
sou selects, for cxi)edition against 
pirates, 607; takes part in battle 
with, 613, 

Hall, Gyles, owner of lot in Old Town, 
1()4 : comes from Barbadoes, 327 ??. 

Halsted, Captain, of the Blessing, his 
instructions, 139, 140, 142, 155 ; writes 
to Shaftesbury, 1(52; writes to Pro- 
prietors charges against Yeamans 
and (rray, 173; mentioned, 180, 182. 

Hamilton, mentioned, 214. 

Hamilton, family of Lord Cardross's 
colony, 196. 



742 



INDEX 



Harcourt, Sir Simon, opinion of, upon 
Church acts, 4o(i, 440, 441. 

Hardinge, Viscount, claims share of 
Sir William Berkeley as heir of, 270. 

Hardy, Lieutenant Samuel, accom- 
panies Sandford, 82. 

Hare, name of, from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Harford, Captain, in Barnwell's expe- 
dition aixainst Indians, 499. 

Harris, John, petitions Sothell to as- 
sume government, 230, 231 ; charges 
against, 2'MS. 

Harris, Richard, member of Com- 
mons, signs address to the King, 
571. 

Harry Haven, river named by Sand- 
ford, .S2. 

Hart. Charles, member of Council, 
assistant judge in trial of pirates, 
5H7, 5(18, .■>7."), 643, 648. 

Hart, Hugh, member of Commons, 
signs address to the King, 571. 

Hasell, Rev. Thomas, Missionary So. 
Prop. Gospel, 4.39. 

Hastings, Captain, in Barnwell's ex- 
pedition against Indians, 499. 

Havana, Carolina open to invasion 
of, 394 ; invasion concerted at, 396 ; 
Governor of, warns against pirates, 
574 ; expedition against Carolina 
sails from, 6()3. 

Haweth, William, member of Arch- 
dale's Council, 280. 

Hawks, Francis, LL.D., quoted, 128, 
273. 500, .501, 502. 

Hayden, name of, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Hayti or Hispaniola, mentioned, 40, 
41, 42. 

Heath, Sir Robert, Charter of, 49, 54, 
.")S, .-)9, (iO, 61, 67, 70, 76, 95. 

Hearne, Captain John, commands 
company during French and Spanish 
invasion, 3i)8 ; murdered by Indians, 
536. 

Hedges, Sir Charles, Judge of High 
Court of -Vdmiralty, England, ap- 
points admiralty otticers, 297; Secre- 
tary of State, 4.36. 

Henry VIII, mentioned, 40; Statute 
of, in regard to piracy, 253, (!05, 610, 
611. 



Henry, The Sloop, Flagship of Rhett's 
fleet against pirates, 597, 599. 

Hepworth, Thomas, prosecutes pi- 
rates, (ill. 

Herriot, David, captured by Bonnet, 
594 ; turns pirate, 595 ; is captured 
and agrees to give evidence, 604 ; 
escapes with Bonnet, 608, 609; is 
discovered and kilU^l, 612. 

Hewatt, Rev. Alexander, author, his 
work, 16; quoted, 232, 239, 251, 252, 
253, 259. 260, 262, 312, 315, 318, 348, 
460. 

Hides, exports of, 350. 

Higginton, Mr., on committee to su- 
pervise Fundamental Constitutions, 
375. 

High Steward, office of, under Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 99, 141 ; Sir 
Peter Colleton appointed, 110. 

Hildsley, Captain, of the man-of-war 
Phu'idx, 623, 663. 

Hill, Charles, member of Commons, 
signs address to the King, 571; on 
commission to ti-y pirates, 575. 

Hilton's Expedition of Discovery, 71, 
72 ; his map mentioned, 85 ; men- 
tioned, 86, 248. 

Hilton's Head, 87. 

Hiwassee, Indians followed as far as, 
346. 

Hobcaw, mentioned, 400. 

Hogs, great abundance of, 351. 

Holmes, Francis, sent to New Eng- 
land to i)urchase arms, 544. 

Holmes, Sir Robert, sent with fleet 
to suppress i)irates, 256, 257, 258,260. 

Holt, Chief Justice, declares slaves 
merchandise, 441. 

Horry, Daniel, arrives in the Loyal 
J((maica and gives security, 261. 

Horry, Peter, mentioned, 22. 

Horry, the Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Horses, Colonists begin to breed, 188. 

Horsey, Samuel, Proprietors appoint 
Governor and offer to make Land- 
grave, ()77 ; trustee to receive sur- 
render to the (^rcnvn, 679. 

Howard, Captain Thomas, com- 
mander of his Majesty's .ship, 
Shoram, assistant judge to try 
pirates, 567 ; mentioned, 574. 



INDEX 



743 



Howe, Rev. George, D.D., author, 30; 
quoted, 196. 

Howes, Job, one of committee to con- 
sider Fundamental Constitutions, 
293 ; again, 376 ; Speaker of Com- 
mons which passes Church Act, 406 ; 
mentioned, 453. 

Huger, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Hughes, Henry, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134 ; decreed to pay Robert 
Donne for labor, 149; chosen to rep- 
resent people, 156; lands laid out 
for, taken for new town, 1(52, 163; 
owner of lot in Old Town, 164. 

Hughson, C. S., author, 33; quoted, 
257, 586, 601,608. 

Hume of Polwart, one of Lord Car- 
dross's company, 195. 

Humphrey, Kev. Dr. D., Secretary of 
So. Pro. Gospel, quoted, 333 n. 

Hurt, Thomas, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164 n. 

Hyde, Governor of North Carolina, 
commotions between Governor Pol- 
lock and himself, 497, 498; con- 
duct in regard to Barnwell, 500, 501. 

Hyme, Edward, appointed naval offi- 
cer, 465. 

Hyrne, Captain Edward, one of the 
Goose Creek men, 238 n. 

Ibitachtka, Cacique of, mentioned, 
393. 

Immigration to South Carolina, 
sources of, 191. 

Imports, Governor Johnson's Report, 
478, 479. 

Indemnity, Act of. Assembly request 
of Ludwell, 239; unable to grant, 
240; petition for, 243; general par- 
don, but Moore and Daniel excluded 
from, 246. 

Independent or Congregational 
Church, 334. 

Independents. See Congregationalists. 

Indians, Hee at approach of Ribault, 
44; timidity overcome, assist the 
French, 45, 46; claims of Europeans 
by treaty with, 51 ; intercourse with 
Spaniards, 80; Sand ford welcomed 
by, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87 ; Woodward 
left with, 91 ; provisions of Funda- 
mental Constitutions in regard to. 



106; Sayle's colony gladly received 
by, 129; but colonists watchful of, 
129; Indians begin to be trouble- 
some, 146 ; war declared against cer- 
tain tribes and expedition against, 
147; assist in recovering fugitive 
servants, 170; Yeamans and Gray 
charged with complicity in death of 
an, 173; lands purchased from, 178, 
179 ; the use of corn by, 187 ; of oil 
by, 189 ; Proprietors grant privilege 
of making capture of, 189 ; instruc- 
tions as to, 201 ; warnings that 
Spaniards were instigating, 214 ; 
join Spaniards in destruction of 
Cardross's colony, 216 ; Archdale's 
treatment of, 285; captured in 
Moore's expedition against Span- 
iards, 393, 394 ; Governor Johnson's 
Report as to numbers of, 480, 481 ; 
Tuscarora Indians in North Carolina 
rise, expedition against, 496, 497, 498, 
499, 500, 501, 502, 503; Yamassee In- 
dians rise, war against, 532, 533, 534, 
535, 536, 537, 545, 54(5 ; Yamassees 
driven from these lands, 547. 

Indian Trade, Proprietors place re- 
straints upon, 177 ; certain of them 
enter into the. Ibid. ; carried 600 
miles into the country, 302 ; first for- 
tunes in Carolina made, 345, 346 ; in 
Archdale's time near 1000 miles from 
Charles Town, 347; Indian traders, 
453; regulations not properly en- 
forced, 531 ; act to regulate, 558 ; re- 
pealed, 629. 

Indigo, tried with success, 187 ; manu- 
factured, .553. 

Industry, The Ship, 543. 

Ingram, Thomas, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 

Ireland, emigrants from, 114, 629. 

Iroquois, Five Nations of, 526. 

Izard, Kalph, joins in petition to 
Sothell to assume government as a 
Proprietor, 230 ; charges made by, 
236; member of Assembly, 239 n.\ 
on committee to look into Funda- 
mental Constit utions, 293 ; conveys 
lot to French church, 3;}5: planta- 
tion of, 345; introduces Church Act, 
416; commissioner of free school, 



744 



INDEX 



488; on commission to try pirates, 
567 n. ; member of Commons, signs 
address to the King, 571 ; again on 
commission to try pirates, 57o ; com- 
missioner of Indian trade, ()2() ; mem- 
ber of Council, 042 ; qualified, CA'S, 
048. 

Izard, Walter, member of Commons, 
signs address to the King, 571. 

Jackson, Originall, suit of, against 
INIaurice JMatliews, 149; gives land 
for a church, 331; mentioned, 690, 
097. 

Jackson, Meliscent, wife of above. 
Ibid. 

Jamaica, establishment of Royal Gov- 
ernment in, 57 ; tar exported to, 187 ; 
skins, furs, etc., exported to, 189; 
complaints of Governor of, 204 ; 
Henry Morgan, Deputy Governor of, 
205, 250 ; case from involving appli- 
cability of English statutes to colo- 
nies, 249; story of pirates running 
away with vessel from, 2(52; Moore 
sends sloop to, 381 ; Daniel goes to, 
382; Ash threatened to be sent to, 
380; jurisdiction of Bishop of Lon- 
don varied in, 418, 419, 442, 443; ex- 
ports to, 478, 479. 

James Island, passengers of the Ris- 
iny Still washed ashore on, 311; 
operations upon during invasion of 
French, 397, 399. 

James Town, Santee, French settle- 
ment of, 324, and note. 

James Town, Va., mentioned, 1, 5, 688. 

Jeannerette, Huguenot family of, 
.")23 ;/. 

Jehosse Island, mentioned, 85. 

Jews, mentioned, 391, 462. 

Johnson, Fort, mentioned, 395, 506, 
.~)79. 

Johnson, Rev. Gideon, commissary of 
Bishop of London, character of, 472 ; 
cast away, 473; arrives disheart- 
ened, complains to Bishop, 473; 
writes letter about people of Caro- 
lina, 474, 475 ; salary of, 487 ; com- 
missioner of free school, 488; for 
building churches, 495; death of, 
.548: mentioned, .504, ()95. 

Johnson, Sir Nathaniel, surety for 



Thomas Pinckney, 201 ; alluded to 
by Proprietors, 205 ; mentioned, 317 ; 
comes from Leeward Islands, 327 7i., 
328; mentioned, 340; makes silk, 
350 ; position in province, 3(j8 ; High 
churchman, 309; made Governor, 
377, 378, 3S8 ; opposed to revolution 
in England, 389; commission issued 
to, 389; instructions, 389, 390 ; forti- 
fies the town, 392 ; permits Moore 
to invade Apalachian territory, 392 ; 
prepares for French and Spanish 
invasion, 394, .395, 390; presence in- 
spires confidence, 397 ; conduct of 
defence, 398, 399, 400; raises funds 
for, 401 ; revival of Toryism en- 
hanced by, 403; advocates Church 
Act, 40(), 407; assists in building 
church, 411 ; letters of Ashe fall into 
his hands, 413 ; lays them before as- 
sembly, 414; Proprietors approve 
conduct as to Church Act, 429 ; his 
steps to procure ministers, 438, 439; 
dissolves the House, 444 ; message to 
new Assembly, 445 ; his loyalty to 
the Queen, 452 ; his income cur- 
tailed, 453; called upon to remove 
Trott, 457 ; Archdale avenges him- 
self upon, 400, 401 ; address to As- 
sembly, 465, 466, 467; Commons 
address him, 468; addresses also 
Projirietors in his defence, 469; his 
report on condition of province, 477, 
478, 479, 480, 481; mentioned, 554, 
084, 089. 
Johnson, Robert, mentioned, 33, 35; 
surety for his father as Governor, 
390 ; appears before Board of Trade, 
540 ; to be appointed Governor, 547 ; 
his instructions, 509; arrives and 
assumes government, 578 ; addresses 
Commons, 578, 579, 580; Commons 
reply to, 581 ; controversy about 
powder received, 582, 583; pirates 
demand his attention, 585 ; addresses 
Commons in regard to, 580, 587; 
writes to Proprietors on the subject 
of, 589; pirates' demand upon, for 
medicines, 590; summons Council, 
who comply with demand, 591 ; or- 
ganize expedition against, 590, 597 ; 
writes to Proprietors on subject, 



INDEX 



745 



606 ; adopts measures to clear coast 
of, 606 ; takes command of fleet in 
person, 607, 608, 609; offers reward 
for recapture of Bonnet, 609; pro- 
ceeds against pirates, 612; battle 
with, 613 ; defeats and captures, 614, 
615; maintains fleet, 616; Bonnet's 
appeal to, 619 ; fixes day for execu- 
tion of pirates convicted, 620 ; writes 
to Proprietors appealing for assist- 
ance, 622, 623; cordial relations be- 
tween Governor and Assembly, 624 ; 
approves acts in regard to rents 
due Proprietors, 625; represents to 
Proprietors Commons' grievances 
against Rhett, 631 ; dissolves the 
Assembly upon order of Proprietors, 
632 ; sends Mr. Yonge to England to 
represent conduct of Council, 633; 
Proprietors reply, 640, 641 ; calls new 
Assembly, 645 ; consults Council and 
newly elected members of Commons 
on threat of invasion by Spaniards, 
645 ; proposes subscription of private 
means, members of Commons refuse, 
646 ; summons field officers of militia 
for review, 646 ; receives letter from 
committee of people calling on him 
to hold for King, 647, 648; comes 
from plantation and summons Coun- 
cil, 648; part of whom only attend, 
649 ; Mr. Middleton, on part of Com- 
mons, addresses him, 649, 650; re- 
plies, 651, 652, 653 ; dissolves Assem- 
bly, 653 ; has conference with Colonel 
Parris, 654 ; finds militia drawn up 
contrary to his orders, 654, 655 ; 
orders them to disperse, militia re- 
fuses, 655 ; recognizes government 
overthrown, 658 ; writes to Proprie- 
tors, 658, 659 ; refuses to pay tax of 
new Government, 660 ; appeals to 
Assembly, 661 ; mentioned, 684, 
689. 

Johnson, Captain, commands company 
(luring Frencli invasion, 398. 

Jones, Cadwallader, Governor Ba- 
hama Islands, mentioned, 368. 

Jones, John, member of Parliament, 
134. 

Jones, Rev. Morgan, letter of, con- 
sidered, 330. 



Jones, Thomas, opposes Church Act, 
409. 

Jordan Eiver, mentioned, 41, 86, 87. 

Jours. Jacque or James, owner of lot 
in 01(1 Town, 164, 181, 

Jury Law, act providing, 249, 250. 

Kennis, William, member of Parlia- 
ment, i;!4 ; owner of lot in Old Town, 
164. 

Kettleby, Abel, mentioned, 111; pur- 
chases 5000 acres, 485 ; made agent 
and Landgrave, 516 ; appears before 
Board of Trade, 540, 542 ; mentioned, 
544, 569. 

Kiawha River, mentioned, 77, 86, 90, 
91, 125, 12(), 129, 131, 136, 162. 

Kidd, Captain, mentioned, 262, 263, 
595. 

Kimberley, Thomas, Attorney Gen- 
eral, ()77. 

Kimloch, James, member of Council, 
5(;9; left out, ()40. 

Kingsland, Major, mentioned, 143. 

Kinsale, Ireland, 115, 122. 

King William, The Ship, of Governor 
Johnson's fleet against pirates, 607, 
613. 

King, Captain, of The Neptune, 598. 

Kussoes, Indians, 146, 147. 

Kyrle, Sir Richard, appointed Gov- 
ernor, 201 : comes out and dies, 202; 
mentioned, 232, 275. 

Labat, Pere, quoted, 356. 

Ladson, John, comes from Barbadoes, 
182 ; member of Assembly, 239. 

Ladson, name of, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Laine, Anthony, grant to, 180. 

Lake, name of, from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Lamboll, Thomas, account of contro- 
versy between Gebbes and Brough- 
ton from his Ms., 491. 

Landgraves, mentioned, 9 ; provisions 
of Fundamental Constitutions re- 
garding, 96, 97, 98, 102 ; provision of 
charter in regard to appointment of, 
disregarded, 111, 112; to be of the 
Council, 141 ; Yeamans claims the 
government by virtue of his being 
Landgrave, mentioned, 155; little 
material for, among early settlers, 
173; mentioned, 176; title of, sought, 



746 



INDEX 



197, 198; mentioned, 208, 224, 232, 
258, 26G, 278, 288, 290 ; patents to be 
purchased, 292 ; legislative power of, 
denied, 293 ; mentioned, 376, 378, 497, 
539, (kS() ; list of, Appendix IV, 717. 

Landgravine Colleton, 317 n. 

Lands, Price of, 185, 190, 207, 278, 279, 
284, 48o, 580, 581, 624. 

Lansac, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

La Roche, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Lawson, John, author, explorer, sur- 
veyor of North Carolina, 319, 324, 
496,497, 701. 

Law officers. List of, Appendix VI, 721. 

Lawdoniere, expedition of, 45. 

Lawrens, Huguenot family of, 323, n. 

Lawyers, provisions of Fundamental 
Constitutions in regard to, 101, 102 ; 
O'Sullivan writes for one, 137 ; none 
in colony, 148, 252, 2.59, 299, 611,617. 

Lay Commissioners, act appointed, 
417-420, 421, 422 ; Boone defends, 
4.33, 434; considered, 441, 443. 

Leather, exported to England, 350. 

Le Bas, member of Assembly, 239; 
grant to, .322 n. 

Lederer, Expedition of, 128. 

Lee, Colonel Henry, author, 20, 24. 

Leet-court. under Fundamental Con- 
stitutions, 98; Leet-raen, Ihid. 

Le Feboure, Captain, commander 
French expedition, 396, 397. 

Le Grand, Isaac, grant to, 322 n. 

Legare, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Leigh, Chief Justice Peter, mentioned, 

Le Jan. Rev. Francis, mentioned, 439, 

48S. 
Le Jay, Isaac, 322 n. 
Lemon Island, Ribault erects stone 

uixm, 45. 
Le Moyne, James, grant to, .322 n. 
Lenud, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 
Lexington, Battle of, mentioned, 3. 
Libraries, provincial, .353, 471, 472, 

50!) ; public, 701. 
Limitation. Statute of, enacted, 515. 
Linche, Captain, commands company 

in French invasion. ;'.98. 
Linchley, Christopher, arrives in 

Loyal Jamaica, and gives security, 

261 ; deposition of, as to prize, 262. 



Lining, Elizabeth, brought here in cap- 
tivity, and released by Council, 197. 

Living, Expenses of, 188 ; Rev. Gideon 
Johnson complains of, 474. 

Loan, Captain Arthur, of the ship 
Medlteri\inean, assistant judge in 
trial of pirates, 607, 610. 

Lochart, of Lord Cardross's company, 
195. 

Locke, John, mentioned, 9, 37 ; Funda- 
mental Constitutions drawn by, 94 ; 
Ms. copy sui^posed to be in his hand- 
writing, 105 ; effect of, upon his rep- 
utation, 109, 110; made Landgrave, 
111, 141 ; his interest in settlement 
of colony, writes letters for Shaftes- 
bury, 157; his responsibility for 
clause of Constitutions in regard to 
Church of England, 167 ; connection 
with province ceases, 269 ; business 
of province attended to by him, 
275 ; appointed Landgrave for ser- 
vices in drawing Constitutions, 292 ; 
provision in Constitutions in regard 
to slavery, 358 ; mentioned, 523, 685, 
710. 

Locke Island, 176. 

Logan, George, charged by Randolph 
with illegal seizing and condemning 
vessels, 372; nominated by Assem- 
bly as Receiver, 456, 458; commis- 
sioner of free schools, 488 ; assistant 
judge to try pirates, 567 n. ; Speaker, 
signs address to the King, 571 ; on 
commission to try pii'ates, 575; com- 
missioner to regulate Indian trade, 
626 ; letter to Governor Johnson call- 
ing upon him to hold for the King, 
647. 

London, Bishop of. Governor and 
Council write to, for minister in 
place of Mr. Marshall, 410; recom- 
mends Mr. Marston, 412; question 
as to his jui'isdiction, 417, 418, 420; 
Boone maintains, 432, 433; So. for 
Pro. Gos., refers Church Act to, 439; 
jurisdiction questioned, 442; office 
of commissary, jurisdiction exer- 
cised by, 471 ; sends out Rev. Gideon 
Johnson as, 472; mentioned, 495. 

London Company, charter of, men- 
tioned, 57. 



INDEX 



747 



London or Wilton, Colleton County 
election to be held at, 198. 

Longbois, Captain, commands com- 
pany during Frencli invasion, 398. 

Longuemar, Nicholas, grant to, 322 n. 

Lorcey, Captain, member of Com- 
mons, 505 n. 

Lord's Day, to be observed, 133, 513, 
514, 515. 

Lords, House of, rejects Occasional 
Conformity Bill, 4:26 ; Boone appeals 
to, 434 ; their Lordships address the 
Queen, 435; Queen's action thereon, 
436, 437, 438 : mentioned, 4<;i. 

Loughton, Edward, searches for 
mines, 34S. 

Louis XIV, The King, mentioned, 365. 

Lovinge, Michael, sawyer, grantor of 
lot on which French afterwards 
built, 335 11. 

Low, Emmanuel, a Quaker, 273. 

Lowndes, name of, from island of 
St. Christopher, 327 n., 328. 

Lowndes, Thomas, purchases Land- 
graveship. 111 ; mentioned, 077 ; 
Appendix IV, 717. 

Loyd, Mr., conduct during Revolution, 
655. 

Loyal Jamaica, privateer, arrives, 
259, 260; passengers on, 261. 

Ludwell, Philip, mentioned, 233, 234; 
sketch of, 235 ; commissioned as 
Governor of Carolina, 236 ; his in- 
structions, 236, 237, 238; calls As- 
sembly, 239; Assembly address him, 
239; his strange reply, 240; denies 
indemnity sought, 241 ; Proprietors 
withdraw power previously given 
him, 345 ; admit to him they cannot 
enforce Constitution, 246; write to 
him they will rule by charter, 247 ; 
pursues reactionary course in regard 
to Huguenots, 263 ; Proprietors warn 
him against Goose Creek men, 265 ; 
advises omission of word "nobility " 
in enacting words of statute, 265 ; 
commission recalled, 26(5 ; men- 
tioned, 27(), 327, (574, 675. 

Ludwell, Dame Frances, sket(;h of, 
235 and u. ; as Lady l^»erkeley, .sells 
Sir William Berkeley's share to 
Archdale, 270; disregarding him, as 



Lady Ludwell she conveys to certain 
Proprietors, Ibid. 

Luke Island mentioned as boundary 
in charter, (54. 

Lynch, Sir Thomas, Governor Ja- 
maica, charges Carolina to favor 
pirates, 204, 206. 

Lyttleton, Governor William Henry, 
mentioned, 35. 

Macaulay, Lord, quoted, 298, 317. 

Macclesfield, Lord, decision in case of 
Dan Situ v. Trott, 460, 675, 676. 

McCrady. Edward, quoted, 13, 37, 694. 

Mclver, Hon. Henry, Commissioner 
of Public Records, 32. 

McMaster, Professor J. B., quoted, 
12, 36, 694. 

Machoone, Robert, commission, 379. 

Mackay, Colonel Alexander, com- 
mands forces in Indian war, 535, 
536, 544. 

Mackemie, Rev. Francis, Presbyte- 
rian clergyman, visits Carolina, 334. 

Macyck, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Madagascar, mentioned, 263; rice 
brought from, 348, 349. 

Mahown, Dennis, fugitive servant, 
150. 

Maine, province of, mentioned, 56, 710. 

Manigault, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Manigault, Judith, 320. 

Manwaring, Captain, of sloop For- 
tune, captured by pirates, 596. 

Marion, Francis, mentioned, 21, 22. 

Marion, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Marlborough, Earl of, claim of, to 
Barbadoes, 54, 70. 

Marlborough, Duke of, mentioned, 
405, 426, 4:'.0, 452. 

Marschall, James, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 

Marsden, Rev. Richard, rector to St. 
Philip's Church, 420, 473, 476, 495. 

Marshall, Ralph, servant to Captain 
O'Sullivan, 121; chosen Representa- 
tive of people, 125, 156; member of 
Grand Council, 161 ; owner of lot in 
Old Town, 1()4 /(.; joins in appliiia- 
tion for a clergyman, 318; member 
of Royal Africiui Company, 357. 

Marshall, Rev. Samuel, sent out and 
made Registrar of colony, 301 ; miu- 



748 



INDEX 



ister of St. Philip's, and death of, 
309; his character, 332 ; meutioned, 
333, 410, 411, 41 S. 

Marston, Kev. Edward, involved in 
controversy of Church Act, 408 ; put 
in charge of St. Philip's Church, 
411 ; his character, 412 ; meddles 
with political matters, 413 ; preaches 
against Commons, and is summoned 
to bar of, 414 ; deprived of salary, 
refuses to hear censure, 415; men- 
tioned, 417, 411), 420, 422, 430, 439, 
440, 445, 475, 476, 495; importunes 
Commons for reinstatement, 454, 455. 

Martell, James, grant to, 322 n. 

Martial law declared by Colleton, 
228 ; Commons petition against, 242 ; 
Governor Craven declares, 535 ; al- 
lowed by Assembly, 537. 

Martyr, Peter, historian, quoted, 42. 

Mary, Queen, 229. 

Maryland mentioned, 2, 5, 5(5, 57, 293, 
2i)4, 418, 419, 577, 710. 

Massachusetts, 7, 73, 293. 

Masters, Captain John, of the ship 
Henry, expedition against pirates, 
(i07, 613. 

Mathews, Edward, owner of lot in 
01(1 Town, 1()4. 

Mathews, Maurice, account of voyage 
from Bermuda, 126 ; member of Par- 
liament, 134 ; appointed to view 
Ward's River, 146; mentioned, 149; 
Representative, 156 ; member of 
Grand Council, 161 ; owner of lot in 
Old Town, 164 ; appointed captain, 
171 ; mentioned, 188 ; appointed to 
take possession of lands sold by In- 
dians, 195 ; member of Council, 197. 

Maule, Rev. Robert, commissioner 
free school, 511. 

Maverick, John (or Manwick), owner 
of lot in Old Town, 164 ; comes from 
Barbadoes, 327 n. 

May, The River, 44-48. 

Maybank, David, searches for mines, 
348. 

Mazyck, Huguenot family of, 323 w. 

Mazyck, Isaac, surety for Daniel 
Horry, 261 n. ; mentioned, 697, 698. 

Mediterranean, The Ship, 607, 612, 
613. 



Medlicot arrives in the Loyal Jamaica, 
and gives security, 261, 262. 

Meeting Street, Charleston, men- 
tioned, 1()3. 

Melendez massacres French garri- 
son, 4S. 

Merchants of London, mentioned, 
542, 551. 

Meriwether, Colyer, author, meu- 
tioned, 36. 

Michau, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Michel, Lewis, grant to, in North Caro- 
lina, 496. 

Middleton, Arthur, member of Coun- 
cil, 197; comes from Barbadoes, 
327 n. ; mentioned, 689. 

Middleton, Arthur, the younger, 
mentioned, 35 ; commissioner of 
free school, 488 ; Committee of Cor- 
respondence, 517 ; sent to Virginia 
for assistance, 544, 545, 549 ; on com- 
mission to try pirates, 567; presi- 
dent of Convention, 649. 

Middleton, Edward, comes from Bar- 
badoes, 327 n. 

Military organization, 9, 10. 

Militia, Governor Johnson's report 
of, 478. 

Miller, Charles, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 1()4. 

Mills, statistics, 125. 

Minerva, The Ship, plundered and 
burnt by jjirates, 616. 

Mines, Moore makes search for, 347 ; 
Proprietors send out Cutler to search 
for, 348. 

Mississippi, mentioned, 3, 77, 258, 
.553, ()83. 

Mitchell, Colonel, of North Carolina, 
fommands in war with Indians, 501. 

Mobile, mentioned, .5.38, 543, ,5.53, 683. 

Modiford, Colonel, of Barbadoes, pro- 
poses to come to Carolina, 71 ; but 
is diverted, 72. 

Money, purchasing power, 114, 483, 
(524, (;25. 

Montserrat, mentioned. 478. 

Montague, Lord Charles Greville, 
ineiitioiHMi, .'iS, 3(). 

Montgomerie, the family of, 196, 214. 

Montgomery, Sir Robert, i)ioposed 
colony of Azilia, 575, 576, 578, 580. 



INDEX 



749 



Moody, The Pirate, mentioned, 606, 
609, (il6. 

Moore, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas 
Ainjr, 460, 674. 

Moore, James, member of Council, 
197 ; one of tlie Goose Creelv men, 
238 n.; member of Assembly, 239; 
excluded from pardon, 246 ; men- 
tioned by Proprietors as head of 
faction, 265 ; his opposition, 267 ; 
member of Council, 280; plantation 
of, 345; adventurer and Indian 
trader, 347 ; searcher for gold, 348 ; 
supposed to be son of Roger Moore 
of Ireland, 367 ; chosen by Council, 
Governor, 373, 374 ; prorogues As- 
sembly, 375 ; his expedition against 
St. Augustine, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 
383, 384, 385, 386; made Attorney 
General, 391 ; commands expedition 
against Apalachian Indians, 392, 
393, 394 ; signs Church Act as mem- 
ber of Council, 406 ; death of, 452 ; 
mentioned, 479, 684, 689. 

Moore, James, son of above, com- 
mands second expedition sent to 
North Carolina, 525, 526 ; appointed 
Lieutenant General, 544; chosen 
Governor by Convention, 654 ; men- 
tioned, 661, 662, 684, 689. 

Moore, Maurice, son of first above, 
commands volunteers from North 
Carolina, 544; pursues Indians 
into western North Carolina, 547 ; 
thanked by Assembly, 554; men- 
tioned, 684. 

Moore, Roger, son of first above, 
member of Commons, signs address 
to the King, 571 n. 

Moore, Fort, mentioned, 546, 555, 703. 

Moores, The, from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Moran, Michael, servant, set free for 
idleness, elected member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 

Morgan, John, member of Commons, 
.")05 n. 

Morgan, Sir Henry, knighted and 
made Deputy Governor of Jamaica, 
205, 256; mentioned, 258, 592. 

Morritt, Rev. Thomas, master of free 
S(;li()()l, 702. 

Morton, Joseph, comes out with colony 



of dissenters, 194 and n. ; made 
Landgrave and Governor, Ibid. ; his 
administration short, 197, 198, 199 ; 
dissolves Parliament, 200 ; removed, 
201; mentioned, 207; chosen Gover- 
nor by Council and commissioned by 
Proprietors, 210 ; a Deputy also, 
Ibid. ; controversy with Lord Car- 
dross, 214, 215 ; warned by Cardross 
of Spanish invasion, 216; his house 
sacked. Ibid. ; summons Parliament, 
217; all powers of Grand Council 
vested in him, 217 ; superseded by 
Colleton, 218; mentioned, 219, 223; 
224, 232, 275 ; authorized with Daniel 
to sell Landgraveships, 292 ; ap- 
pointed Judge of Admiralty, 297; 
charged with corruption by Ran- 
dolph, 304; Proprietors disapprove 
his acceptance of office under the 
King, 305; mentioned, 345, 372; 
upon death of Blake, though a Land- 
grave, set aside for Moore, 373 ; not 
a favorite with Proprietors, 374; 
mentioned, 391, 402, 403; denied 
leave to enter protest against Church 
acts, 409; mentioned, 440; com- 
missioner of free school, 488 ; men- 
tioned, 497, 689, 696. 

Morton, Joseph, Jr., a Deputy, 210. 

Moseley, Edward, leader of faction 
in North Carolina, 497 ; intimacy 
with Barnwell, 502, 503. 

Moseley, Edward, paid for cataloguing 
books in library, 701. 

Motte, John Abraham, commissioner 
of free school, 488; his death, 511. 

Mottes. See Mottes from Antigua. 

Moultrie, General William, author, 19. 

Mouzon, Huguenot, family of, 323 n. 

Mulberry Castle, description of, 706. 

Muschamp, Captain George, Collector 
of King's Revenue, arrives, 211; at- 
tempt to enforce Navigation Act, 
213; seizes vessel for violating, 222, 
223; calls upon Sothell to assume 
government as a Proprietor, 230; 
appointed by Sothell a Deputy, 231 ; 
mentioned, 23(5, 

Nahucke, Iiulian Fort, North Caro- 
lina, 525. 

Nairne, Captain Thomas, member of 



750 



TKDEX 



Commons, 505 ; sent to inquire cause 
of Indian discontent, 533; is mur- 
dered by them, 534. 
Nantes, Edict of, mentioned, 319, 336, 

402. 
Naval ofl&cer, Nicholas Trott ap- 

])()inted, '_'i>8. 
Navigation Act, account of, 70 ; officer 
sent to enforce, 210, 211 ; resented by 
Barbadians, 212, 213 ; Randolph com- 
plains of violation of, 293 ; schemes 
to enforce, 294 ; reenactment of, 294, 
295; Board of Trade press enforce- 
ment of, 294, 295; and rice among 
enumerated articles, 516, 687. 
Negro slavery, institution of, 9 ; pro- 
vision of Fundamental Constitutions 
in regard to, 106, 107 ; Yeamans 
brings first negro slaves to Carolina, 
151 ; slaves brought from West 
Indies, 190; Barbadian Slave Code 
adopted, 234 ; Barbadians bring their 
slaves, 327 ; Barbadian social order 
based on institution, brought here, 
357, 358, 359, 3(50, 361, 3()2, 363; duty 
imposed upon importation of slaves, 
383 ; Chief Justice Holt declares ne- 
gro slaves merchandise under Nav- 
igation acts, 441 ; numbers, 478 ; 
imported from Barbadoes and Ja- 
maica, 479 ; duty on, 557 : institution 
of, mentioned, (J83, 686, (587 ; table of 
importation of negro slaves. Appen- 
dix VI, 721. 

Neptune, The Ship, captured by pi- 
rates, 597, 598. 

Neufville, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Neuse River, mentioned, 525, 549. 

Neve, Captain John, one of the Goose 
Creek men, 238. 

Nevis, mentioned, 122, 478. 

Newberne, N. C, mentioned, 499. 

New England, mentioned, 4, 6, 7, 214, 
229. 2S7. 294. 537. 

New England Co., mentioned, 73, 74. 

New Hampshire, mentioned, 294. 

New Jersey, mentioned, 56, 229, 293, 
709, 710, 711. 

New Mexico, mentioned, 77. 

New Netherlands, mentioned, 49, 212. 

New Providence, mentioned, 588, 
589. 



New York, mentioned, 2, 3, 5, 8, 56, 
ISO, 22it, 29:'., 47;i. .-)41. 

New York Revenge, The Ship, the 
ship named Kat/lr changed by pi- 
rates to, 615. 

Nicholas James, ulius Fetibois, grant 
to, 322;/. 

Nicholson, Sir Francis, mentioned, 35, 
354, 471, 5;;9, 511 ; made Provisional 
Governor, 673. 

Nobility, Frovincial, under Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 9(5, 97. 

Noble, Henry, surety for Thomas 
Pinckney, 2()1; member of Council, 
signs Church Act, 406; member of 
Commons, .")05. 

No Popery Cry, 269. 

Norris, Thomas, mentioned, 134. 

North Carolina, mentioned, 5, 77, 235, 
278, 293, 294, 461, 506, 525, 545, 550, 
551, 554. 

Northey, Sir Edward, Attorney Gen- 
eral of England, 436, 440, 441. 

Norton, John, mentioned, 149. 

Nova Belgia, emigrants from, 180. 

Oats, abundance of, yield, 187. 

Occasional Conformity, controversy 
in England regarding, 366, 408, 426. 

Octogenarian Lady, 238 u. 

Oglethorpe's expedition, 577, 578. 

Oldfield, John, member of Commons, 
505 n. 

Oldmixon, John, author, 15, 16; 
quoted, 145, 193, 208, 332, 351, 378, 
405, 415, 419, 425, 444, 486. 

Old Town mentioned, 37, 402 ; laid out 
anew, and lots redistributed, 163, 
164: abandoned, 182. 

Oldys, Joseph, mentioned, 150. 

O'Neal, John B., mentioned, 29. 

Orange Quarter, 319, 448. 

Osborne, Rev. Mr., escapes Indians, 
534. 

O'Sullivan, Captain Florence, master 
on board Carolina on fleet in the 
Downes, 121 and n. ; a Deputy, 124 ; 
writes to Lord Ashley, 136; writes 
for a minister to be sent, 137; men- 
tioned, 155, 156 ; complained of as 
incompetent as a surveyor, 157; 
owner of lot in Old Town, 164; 
takes part, it is alleged, in civil 



INDEX 



751 



disturbances, 169; Braine makes 
charges against, 170 ; made captain, 
171 ; mentioned, 307, 318. 

Owen, William, proposes bringing suit 
against Yeamans, 124; censures le- 
gality of election , 125, 126 ; makes 
question as to power of Governor 
and Council, 133, 134, 135 ; declared 
incapable of holding office, 135 ; is a 
deputy, 136, 161 ; mentioned, 153, 156, 
213, 685 ; owner of lot in Old Town, 
163. 

Oyster Point, or White Point, men- 
tioned, 37; lands upon, laid out for 
a town , 163 ; removal from Old Town 
to, 182; town described, 183. 

Pacquereau, Captain Louis, of French 
rieet captured, 400. 

Palatine, term defined, 59; Province 
created a county Palatine, Ibid., 94, 
95 ; Court, 110 ; to name Governor, 
140 ; Assembly objects to two courts, 
241, 242; mentioned, 274, 291, 504; 
list of Palatines, see Appendix III, 
716. 

Palmer, "a young stripling," gallant 
action of, 535. 

Panama, mentioned, 205, 258. 

Parish System, account of, 559, 560; 
taken from Barbadoes, Ibid., 562, 
.5()3, 694, 695. 

Parishes, laid out, 447, 448 ; names of. 
Ibid, and n. 

Parker, name of, from Barbadoes, 
327 n. 

Parliament, 102, 156, 161. 

Parris, name from Barbadoes, 328 n. 

Parris, Alexander, commissioner of 
free school, 488; commissioner for 
building church, 495 ; member of 
Commons, 505 n.\ mentioned, 586; 
on commission to try pirates, 609; 
commander of militia in Revolution 
of 1719, 654, 655. 

Parris Island, mentioned, 494 n. 

Parties, formation of, 152, 153. 

Partridge, Nathaniel, Provost Mar- 
shal, 604. 

Peas, abundance of, 187. 

Pell, Ignatius, pirate, agrees to become 
evidence for Crown, 604 ; refuses to 
fly, and testifies, 611, 617. 



Pendarvis, Joseph, owner of lot in 
Old Town, 164; receiver of funds for 
expedition to St. Augustine, 217 ; 
member of Assembly, 239. 

Pendulum engine, for husking rice, 
349. 

Penelope, The Ship, taken by pirates, 
575. \ 

Penn, William, mentioned, 56. 

Pennsylvania, Province of, mentioned, 
2, 229, 294, 296, 479. 

Percival, Andrew, Governor of plan- 
tation on Edisto, 175, 176; Indians 
make deeds to, 179; member of 
Council, 197 ; petitions Sothell to 
assume government as a Proprietor, 
230; mentioned, 236. 

Percy, name of, from Antigua, 328 n. 

Perdriau. Huguenot family of, 324 n. 

Perkins, Simon, colony offered to, from 
emigrants, 180. 

Peronneau, Huguenot family of, 324 yi. 

Peru, mentioned, 638. 

Petit Rene, with Grinard brings out 
colony of Huguenots, 180, 181 ; colo- 
nists of, mentioned, 319, 321, 402. 

Pettibois See Nicholas. 

Pettitt, John, colony offered to, with 
Perkins, for emigrants, 180. 

Peyre. Huguenot family of, 324 n. 

Philadelphia, mentioned, 309. 

Phoenix, The Ship, brings a number 
of families from New York, 144. 

Phoenix, The Man-of-War, 623, 663. 

Pierce, Captain, commands Indians 
in Barnwell's expedition, 499. 

Pierpont, Eev. Benjamin, 335. 

Pilots, provided, ;)44. 

Pinckney, Charles, mentioned, 36. 

Pinckney, from .lainaica, 327 n. 

Pinckney, Thomas, arrives in the 
Loyal Jamaica, and gives surety, 
261 ; deposition of, in regard to prize, 
262. 

Pinkerd, John, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164 n. 

Piracy, Statute of Henry VIII, 254; 
maile of force, 566. 

Pirates, mentioned, .33; occupied by 
coast of Carolina, 204; encouraged 
by Charles II, legitimate cause of 
sympathy between colonists and, 



752 



INDEX 



205 : but not harbored by them, 206 ; 
message of Proprietors in regard to, 
219; charges against colonists of 
complicity with, examined and re- 
fnted, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 
250, 257, 258; taken and executed, 
312 ; again appear on coast, 564, 565, 
56(5; Statute of Henry VIII in regard 
to adopted, certain, taken, tried 
under and executed, 566,567 ; another 
party taken, tried, and executed, 
575; Governor's message in regard 
to, 586; pirates infest coast, in no 
sense Carolina pirates, 587 ; driven 
from Providence take refuge at 
Cape Fear, Thatch or Black Beard 
appears off Charles Town bar, takes 
vessel with citizens and demands 
medicines on pain of death of pris- 
oners, 589, 590 ; demand comi^lied 
with, 591 ; Bonnet joins Thatch, 593, 
594; their depredations, 595; Gov- 
ernor Johnson organizes expedition 
against, 596 ; Colonel Rhett in com- 
mand proceeds in search of, battle 
with and captures Bonnet, 597, 598, 
599, 600, 601, 602, 603, 604. See Bon- 
net for escape, recapture, trial, and 
execution ; Moody appears, Governor 
Johnson organizes and commands 
another expedition against, 608, 609; 
attacks and captures Worley, 612, 
«)13, 614. 615, 616. 

Plantations, English governments of, 
51, n2. 

Plowden. Francis, killed, 393. 

Plymouth, Mass., mentioned, 1, 688. 

Pocotaligo, inoiitioned. ^)P^^, 535. 

Poe's Story of Gold Bug, mentioned, 
262. 

Pollock, Thomas, of North Carolina, 
leader of faction, 497; charges 
against Barnwell, 501, 502, 503, 525. 

Police (Military) System, established, 
9, 10, ;;!i4. 

Pompion Hill Church, mentioned, 307, 
40,S, CDC. 

Pon Pon River, mentioned, 546. 

Poor Laws. .")15. 

Popell, William, Receiver, with Pen- 
darvis, of funds for expedition 
against St. Augustine, 217. 



Popish Plot, mentioned, 402. 

Popish Terror, 193. 

Population, estimates of, 115, 140, 144, 
185, 302, 315, 337, .341, 477, 478, 481. 
See Appendix VII, 722. 

Porcher, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Pork, exported to West Indies, 350. 

Porter, John, of North Carolina, sent 
to England to complain of Governor 
Johnson, 461. 

Portman. Christopher, chosen Repre- 
sentative, 15(5, 161 ; owner of lot in 
Old Town, 164 n. ; comes from Bar- 
badoes, 327 n. 

Port Peril, Sandford so names St. 
Helena Sound, 87. 

Port Royal, mentioned, 6; Ribault 
names, 44; mentioned, 48, 49, 50; 
Sandford enters, 86, 87 ; leaves, 90 ; 
expedition to be sent to, 114; in- 
structions to colonists upon their 
arrival there, 116; mentioned, 122; 
colonists under Sayle enter, 125; 
old election there, 125; sails from, 
126; mentioned, 177; Lord Cardross 
selects for his colony, 195; men- 
tioned, 214, 215; colony at, destroyed 
by Spaniards, 217; rendezvous of ex- 
pedition against St. Augustine, 381 ; 
Beaufort Town built upon Port Royal 
River, 493; mentioned, 531 ; Indians 
attack settlers upon, 534 : mentioned, 
546, .547 ; small fort at, 703. 

Port Royal, The Ship, mentioned as 
one of the fleet on the Downes about 
to sail, 115, 120 ; loses an anchor at 
Barbadoes, 122; is cast away near 
Abaco, 123. 

Porto Bello, mentioned, 205, 258. 

Portugal, agent offered reward for 
obtaining exportation of rice free 
to, .517. 

Portuguese pirates, 588. 

Postell, Huguenot family of, 323 n.. 

Postoffice, mentioned, 3; established, 
.352. 

Powder Receiver, controversy over 
the appointment of, 582, 583. 

Power, Captain, of the Emperor, 
captured by pirates, 598. 

Powis. John, member of Assembly, 2.39. 

Powis. T., Attorney General of Eng- 



INDEX 



753 



land, opinion upon trade to Scotland 
and Ireland, 222, 223. 

Poyass, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Precedency, Rules of, under Funda- 
mental Constitutions, Appendix I, 
713, 714. 

Presbyterians, churches of, 334 ; men- 
tioned, 338, 404, G99. 

Prettye, Henry, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 104. 

Price, John, mentioned, 111, 677, and 
in List of Landgraves, Appendix IV, 
718. 

Prices, act was certain, 225 ; of labor, 
etc., 482. 

Privateers, question as to the employ- 
ment of, 255, 256. 

Probate office, records of, 260, 262. 

Proprietary governments, men- 
tioned, 5 ; nature of, 52 ; King- 
James determines to suppress, 213, 
218, 229 ; Randolph urges the King 
to do so, 293, 294, 295; Board of 
Trade joins in doing so, 296, 297, 
681, 682, 709. 

Proprietors, Lords, mentioned, 9, 37; 
grant to, 56; sketches of, 61, 62, 63, 
64 ; powers conferred upon, by char- 
ter, 65, 66, 67, 68; meet to devise 
plans, 73; form joint stock com- 
pany, and issue proposals for colo- 
nists, 73, 74; appoint Sir William 
Berkeley Governor of Carolina, 74; 
lay off Albemarle and Clarendon 
counties, 74, 75; mentioned, 80; 
Sandford takes possession of terri- 
tory for, 82, 83 ; Fundamental Con- 
stitutions adopted by, 94 ; provisions 
of, in regard to, 95, 96, 97, 9S, 99, 100, 
101, 102, 103; mentioned, 104, 105, 
107 ; establish government under, 
110; mentioned, 111, 112; commis- 
sion for deputies, 116, 117 ; disregard 
provisions of charter, 120; deputies 
of, 124; offer of, to Rev. Mr. Bond, 
132; Governor and Council complain 
of Owen, 134; mentioned, 140, 141; 
disregard provisions of charter, 141, 
142; "out of purse," 142; men- 
tioned, 143, 145, 147, 148, 151, 154, 
157, 158, 160, 164, 165, 166; seven of, 
churchmen, 167; send out " Tempo- 
3c 



rary" and "Agrarian Law," 167, 
168, 169; some of, establisli planta- 
tion on Edisto, 175, 176 ; disregard 
provisions of charter, 178 ; purchase 
lands from Indians, 179; mentioned, 
181; instructions of, as to location 
of town, 182; mentioned, 183; give 
privilege to capture Indians, 189 ; 
offers of, to immigrants, 190 ; modify 
constitutions, 192 ; mentioned, 194 ; 
agreement with Lord Cardross's col- 
ony, 195; mentioned, 197, 198; letter 
of, in regard to ballots, 198, 200; 
mentioned, 201 ; recommend Quarry, 
202; mentioned, 203, 204, 206; Com- 
missioner West, 207 ; instructions 
of, Ibid.; mentioned, 208; announce 
death King Charles II, 209 ; commis- 
sion Morton, 210; approve conduct 
of Colleton, 218, 219; mentioned, 
224, 225 ; deny Fundamental Consti- 
tutions of 1669, 226, 227; proclaim 
King William and Queen Mary, 229 ; 
abandon Colleton, 231; mentioned, 
232; commission Ludwell, 233; men- 
tioned, 237, 239, 241, 243; issue be- 
tween colonists and, 246; declare 
purpose of abandoning constitution, 
246 ; opinion of, in regard to force of 
habeas corpus Act, 247, 248, 249 ; dis- 
allow Jury Act, 250; disapprove act 
regarding elections, 251 ; mentioned, 
258, 260; surrender no power, 264; 
several of, advance funds, 274; 
neglect of colony, 275 ; attempted 
meetings of, 276, 277; Archdale 
sent out by, 277; mentioned, 287, 
288, 289; make another effort to 
impose Fundamental Constitutions, 
291 ; disregard of charter, 292 ; re- 
fuse demand of Assembly in regard 
to, 293 ; send out a Chief Justice and 
Attorney General, 297, 298; men- 
tioned, 300, 301, 305 ; letters to Chief 
Justice and Attorney General, 305, 
306 ; letter of Governor and Council 
to, 308; mentioned, 314; summoned 
to answer in regard to Blake's ap- 
pointment as Governor, 388; com- 
mission Sir Nathaniel Johnson, 389; 
Assembly thanks, 392; Ash sent to, 
413; powers of, under charter, in 



754 



INDEX 



regard to religion, 433; ordered to 
declare Church acts void, 437, 444; 
controversy with Assembly about 
appointment of Receiver, 456 ; as- 
cendancy of dissenters in Board of, 
458, 459 ; inform Governor of appoint- 
ment of Mr. Johnson Commissary 
Bishop of London, 472; grant of, to 
de Graffenried, 490; proclaim King 
George I, 527 ; grant extraordinary 
to Trott, 529; unable to assist colo- 
nists, 539, 541, 552; mentioned, 556; 
revoke Trott's veto powers, 564 ; ap- 
point Robert Johnson Governor, 
568; private correspondence with 
Trott, 569; mentioned, 571, 572, 573; 
consider proposition for establish- 
ment of the Province of Azilia, 576, 
577 ; mentioned, 578, 579 ; offer " do- 
nation," 581 ; mentioned, 624; good- 
will of colonists to, 626; order to 
dissolve Assembly, 626, 627 ; and re- 
peal acts in regard to elections, 628 ; 
in regard to Yamassee lands, 629; 
mentioned, 630, 631, 632, 633, 634; 
Mr. Yonge sent with memorial to, 
635 ; composition of, 635 ; Yonge 
presents memorial, 636, 637, 638, 
639; memorial resented by, 640; 
Yonge sent back with letter from, 
641; new appointments to Council, 
642; and repeal of duty act, 642; 
Youge's criticism of, 643, 644 ; whole 
province risesin confederacy against, 
646, 647, 648, 649, 650, 651, 652, 653, 
654, 655, 65(), 657, 658, 659, 660, 661, 
662, 663; and is overthrown, 664; 
mentioned, 670, 671, 672, 673, (574, 
675, 676 ; make an effort to recover 
their government, 677 ; finally sur- 
render to the Crown, 678, 679, 680 ; 
mentioned, 696, 697, 699; devolu- 
tions of titles of, 711. 

Providence, Island of, mentioned, 113, 
29! J, 645, 663. 

Province, definition of term, 77. 

Provisional Government, established, 
673. 

Provost Marshal, 10; Edward Raw- 
lins, P. M., dies, 309; Trott empow- 
ered, to appoint his own, 529; Na- 
thaniel Partridge, 604. 



Public Houses, acts in regard to, 285, 

286, 514. 

Puritans, mentioned, 49, 318, 326. 

Quakers, mentioned, 272, 274, 278, 329, 
4(n,670, 671,699. 

Quarantine, established, 513. 

Quarry, Robert, chosen Governor by 
Council, 202 ; charged with complic- 
ity with pirates, 203 ; a deputy, 210 ; 
mentioned, 232, 236, 237, 276; plan- 
tation of, 345. 

Quelch, Captain Benjamin, member 
of Commons, 505 n. 

Quo warranto, writ of, 213, 437. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, mentioned, 49; 
charter of, quoted, 53; mentioned, 
58. 

Ramage, B. J., author, 33. 

Ramillies, victory of, mentioned, 452. 

Ramsay, David, author, 18; quoted, 
252, 309, 348, 350. 

Randolph, Edward, collector of King's 
customs, mentioned, 202,260; com- 
plains of violation of Navigation 
Act, 293; recommendations for the 
enforcement of, 294; report of to 
Board of Trade, 301 ; mentioned, 304, 
307, 311, 314, 368, 374, 566. 

Raven, John, member of Commons, 
505 n. 

Ravenel, Daniel, father and son, 602 n. 

Ravenel, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Ravenel, Rene, member of Assembly, 
239 n. 

Rawlins, Edward, death of, 309; from 
St. Christopher, 327 n. 

Read, Captain Thomas, of the ship. 
Fortune, captured by pirates, 
5i)6. 

Receiver, office of, 141, 456, 458, 569, 
573, 624, 660. 

Receiver of Rents, 241. 

Red Sea, pirates from, 259. 

Register, office of, under Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 103, 141, 158 
and 71., 176. 

Reiner, Captain George, of the Lorjal 
Jamaica, arrives, and gives security, 
2()1 and n. 

Religion, provisions of Fundamental 
Constitutions in regard to, 103, 104, 
105, 106. 



INDEX 



755 



Keligious Sects, ratio of, 338. 
Rents, arrears of, 624, 625. 
Revenge, Pirate Craft, 593, 594, 595, 

()13, 614. 
Rhett, William, mentioned, 33 ; sketcn 
of, 369; command of expedition to 
St' Augustine offered to, and de- 
■ clined,383; Colleton members com 
plain of ill usage by, in election for 
House, 385 ; commands fleet against 
French, 397, 400; mentioned, 406; 
is made Speaker, 453; mentioned, 
455- commissioner for building 
church, 495; Speaker of Commons, 
505 n.; commissioner of free school, 
511; committee of correspondence, 
517; dissents from address to Gov- 
ernor, 530 ; election law not accepta- 
ble to, 563; mentioned, 591; com- 
mands fleet against pirates, 596,597, 
599, 600, 601, 602 ; defeats and capt- 
ures Stede Bonnet, 603, 604; men- 
tioned, 606; declines command of 
second fleet, 607; accepts commis- 
sion to recapture Bonnet, and re- 
captures him, 612; Bonnet appeals 
to him for mercy, 619, 620; men- 
tioned, 621, 630, 636. 645; escapes 
personal effect of Revolution, 656, 
660 ; yet preserved credit with Pro- 
prietors, 661 ; repairs fortifications, 
663- mentioned, ()H4, 690; death of, 
690 n. ; gift of, to St. Philip's Church, 

Rhode Island, mentioned, 5, 293, 294, 

479. 
Ribault, Jean, mentioned, 8, 37; sent 
out in command of two ships, lands, 
and takes possession in name of King 
of France, 44, 45 ; leaves garrison at 
Port Royal and returns to France, 
45 ; mentioned, 48. 
Rice, exported before end of seven- 
teenth century, 348; when first in- 
troduced, 349; its success, 349, 350; 
mentioned in Governor Johnsons 
Reports, 478; agent appointed to 
watch interest of colonists in regard 
to, 516; mentioned, 553; effect of 
Navigation acts upon, 687. 
Richard. The Pirate, 560. 
Richmond, The Ship, brings Hugue- 



nots, 180, 181 ; T. A. Clerk of, re- 
ports, 183, 185; mentioned, 319, 

322. 

Riots Election, 384, 386. 

Risbee, Joseph, presents Church Act 
to Governor, 406 ; brought to bar of 
House, 458 ; is made speaker, 458 ; 
signs address to Proprietors in vin- 
dication of Governor Johnson, 470. 

Rising Sun, loss of the ship, 310, 

Rivers, John, agent of Lord Ashley, 
116 ; mentioned, 127, 154. 

Rivers, Professor James W., author, 
mentioned, 28 ; quoted, 105, 177, 267, 
281, 348, 501, 505. 

Roanoke, Inlet of, 296. 

Robert, Rev. Pierre, Huguenot minis- 
ter, 337. r r^ A 

Robinson, John, member of Graiid 
Council, 161; owner of lot m Old 
Town, 164; appointed captain, 171. 

Redd, George, mentioned as Attorney 
General, 475. 

Rogers, Captain Woodes, dispatched 
with naval force against pirates, 565 ; 
mentioned, 586; arrives at New 
Providence and receives surrender 
of large number of pirates, 588; 
mentioned, 589, 616; Governor of 
Providence, 663. 

Roman Catholics, mentioned, 410 ; ex- 
cluded from benefit of act to encour- 
age importation of white servants, 

Romania, Cape, mentioned, 76, 80; 
Sandford names it Cape Carteret, 92 ; 
mentioned as Romano, 125. 
Rosin, mentioned as an export, 553. 
Royal African Co., members of, men- 
tioned, 3.")7. _ 
Royal James. The Ship, Bonnet 
changes name of his ship to, 596; 
mentioned in battle with Rhett, 599, 
600, 601, 602; surrenders to Rhett, 
603*; employed in Governor John- 
son's expedition. 613. 
Royal or Provincial Government, 
defined, 52 ; established in Virginia, 
Jamaica, and Barbadoes, 57; m 
South Carolina, 673. 
Royes, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 



756 



INDEX 



Kuffly, Thoma.s, murdered by Indians, 

5;u. 

Russ, John, member of Commons, signs 
address to the Kinj^j, 571 n. 

Russell, Captain John, of the Port 
Roijal, 115. 

Rye, lands produced good, 187. 

Ryswick, Peace of, mentioned, 289, 
o()5. 

Sacheverell, Dr., mentioned, 476. 

Sacramental Test, imposition of, 408, 
401), 432. 

Sainsbury, W. Noel, mentioned, 32. 

St. Andrew's Parish, established, 447 ; 
representatives of, 561 ; St. George's 
taken from, 5S4. 

St. Augustine, Town of, mentioned, 
34, 35, 41, <S0, 127; garrison at, 130; 
mentioned, 154, 1()9; slaves desei"t- 
ing, escaped to, 170; Spaniards re- 
treat to, 171 ; mentioned, 195, 205, 
214; preparations for expedition 
against, 217 ; invasion and destruc- 
tion of Cardross's colony, 219, 220, 
221; mentioned, 248,286, 302; Gov- 
ernor Moore's expedition against, 
378, 379, 380, 382, 383; mentioned, 
392, 394, 396, 411, 479, 531, 532, 543, 
.574, 675, 683. 

St. Bartholomew's Parish, established, 
447 ; special i)ro visions as to elections, 
562, .'')73 ; additional number given, 
626. 

St. Denis Parish, derivation of the 
name, .■>19; establishment of parish, 
447; salary of rector, 448; repre- 
sentation of, 561, 626. 

St. Domingo, mentioned, 127. 

St. George's Bay, Spanish name for 
Charleston harbor, 126, 130. 

St. George's Parish, established, 584. 

St. Helena Island, named, 41 ; men- 
tioned, 87; Dr. Woodward captured 
at, 122; Sandford's men land iipon, 
126; " Queen and Captain" of, 179 ; 
inhabitants of, flee for refuge, 534. 
St. Helena Parish, established, 447 ; 
representatives of, 561 ; special pro- 
vision as to elections of, 562, 573 ; 
additional representatives given, 
626. 
St. James's Goose Creek Parish, estab- 



lished, 447 ; representatives of, 561, 
563, 626. 

St. James's Santee Parish, estab- 
lished, 447 ; rector allowed to read 
service in French, 448; representa- 
tive of, 561. 

St. John's Parish, established, 447 ; 
representatives of, 561, (525. 

St. John's River, Florida, mentioned, 
44,381. 

St. Julien. Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

St. Julien, Peter de, one of the Goose 
Creek men, 238 ; member of Council, 
642. 

St. Loe, Captain, of the Valow\ 545. 

St. Mathias River, mentioned, 64, 89. 

St. Michael's Church, 183, .334, 416. 

St. Paul's Parish, established, 447; 
representatives of, 561, 625. 

St. Philip's Church, first church 
erected, 183, 334; mentioned, 408; 
Lady Blake contributes to the adorn- 
ment of, 698 ; beauty of, 708. 

St. Philip's Parish, established, 416; 
defined, 447 ; parochial charges of ^ 
487 ; new church to be built for, 495; 
commissioner appointed, 509 ; library 
to be kept in the parsonage of and 
minister of, librarian, 510; repre- 
sentatives of, 561, 563. 

St. Thomas, Island of, mentioned, 263 ; 
trade with, 479; mentioned, 595, 
617. 

St. Thomas's Parish, established, 447 ; 
representatives of, 561, 5()3, 626. 

Salvano, author, quoted, 40. 

Sance, Baron de, mentioned, 49. 

Sanders, William, appointed Attorney 
General, 4(>5. 

Sandford's "Voyage, Yeamans commis- 
.sions Captain Robert Sandford for 
voyage of discovery, 81 : Sandford's 
account of same, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 
89, 90. 91 : mentioned, 122, 126, 248. 

Santee River, mentioned, 233, 319, 545. 

Sanute, the Indian, gives warning of 

uprising, 532, 533. 

Sarah, The Frigate, mentioned, 575 n. 

Sarazen, t he Huguenot family of, 324 n. 

Satur, Jacob, commissioner to build 

church, 495 ; member of Council, 642, 

643. 



INDEX 



757 



Satur, Thomas, member of Commons, 
signs address to the King, 571 n. 

Saunders, William L., editor Colonial 
Records of North Carolina, 93; 
quoted, 502. 

Savannah, or Savano Town, 237, 639, 
703. 

Savannah Indians, mentioned, 456. 

Saxby, William, Secretary and Treas- 
urer to Proprietors, 177. 

Sayle, Nathaniel, mentioned, 138; 
owner of lot in Old Town, 164, 465. 

Sayle, William, mentioned, 105 ; sent 
by Proprietors to explore coast, 113; 
favorable report of, 114 ; mentioned, 
120 ; made Governor, 124 ; summons 
freemen to elect Representatives, 
125; mentioned, 128, 130; letter to 
Lord Ashley praying for minister, 
131 ; with Council makes order for 
observance of Sabbath, 132, 133; 
mentioned, 137 ; death of, 138 ; men- 
tioned, 139, 154, 189, 191, 224, 227, 
248, 318, 328, 689. 

Schenkingh, Bernard, on committee 
to consider Fundamental Constitu- 
tions, 225 ; to be restored as chief 
judge, 237 ; one of the Goose Creek 
men, 238; comes from Barbadoes, 
327 n. ; plantation of, 345 ; men- 
tioned, 691. 

Schools. See Free School, 700, 701, 
702. 

Scire Facias, writ of, 71, 437, 671. 

Scotch-Irish, mentioned, 6. 

Scotland, emigrants from, 195, 19(5; 
exiles from, 197, 214; ship from, 
223; re1)('ls from, 558. 

Screamen, Thomas, trial of, 149. 

Screven, Kev. Thomas, brings Bap- 
tist colony, .325. 

Scrivener, Dr. William, Deputy for 
Lord Berkeley, 124; joins in appli- 
cation for a minister, 132 ; suj^ports 
Owen in oppositi(«i to Governor, 1.34, 
135; mentioned, 153, 318. 

Seabrook, Captain, commands com- 
pany during French invasion, 398. 

Sea Flower. The Sloop, mentioned, 400. 

Seamen, act relating to, 225 ; not 
above 20, properly accounted set- 
tlers in the province, 479. 



Sea Nymph, The Ship, pressed into 
service against pirates, 597 ; men- 
tioned, 599, 603, (507, 613. 

Secretary, Office of, under Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 141 ; at Colum- 
bia, 260. 

Serre, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Servants, acts relating to, 225, 358, 
359 ; mentioned, 355, 556. 

Sewee Bay, colonists land in, 125; 
mentioned, 236 ; French vessel capt- 
ured in, 400. 

Shadoo, Indian Chief, entertains Sand- 
ford, 83. 

Shaftesbury, Earl of (see Lord Ash- 
ley), mentioned, 109; Lord Ashley 
made, 165 ; religious views of, 167 ; 
mentioned, 175, 176; contributes to 
fund for Indian trade, 177 ; credit 
for plan of purchasing lands from 
Indians, 178, 179; death of, 269; 
mentioned, 275, 357, 711. 

Shaftesbury, Second Earl of, succeeds 
his father, the first Earl, character 
of, 269 ; represented by his son, Lord 
Ashley, Ibid.; mentioned, 291, 428. 

Shaftesbury, Third Earl of, men- 
tioned, 2()9 ; declines to come to 
Carolina, 276 : mentioned, 291, 675. 

Shaftesbury, Lady, letter in regard to 
sale of province, iH\9, 700, 701. 

Shaftesbury Papers, mentioned, 120, 
6(iS. 

Shecut, Dr., autlior, quoted, 703. 

Sheep, mentioned, 188. 

Shelton, Mr., Secretary of the Pro- 
prietors, mentioned, 540, (VM), (5.36, 
711. 

Sheriff, mentioned, 10; sheriff and 
judge same person, 241, 243. 

Ships, of tlie province, 477, 479. 

Shoram, The Man-of-war, mentioned, 
574, 575. 

Signony, under Fundamental Consti- 
tutions, 95. 

Silk, manufacture expected of Hugue- 
nots, 181 ; manufacture of, 3.")0; im- 
ported, 478; mentioned, 553. 

Silk Hope, Governor Johnson's plau- 
lalion, ;'.45. :)')(), .397. 

Simonds, Frances, gives land for In- 
dependent Church, 698. 



758 



INDEX 



Simons, Hugnenot family of, 323 n. 

Skeene, Alexander, comes from Bar- 
badoes, 327 n. ; member of Council, 
568; on commission to try pirates, 
575 ; left out of Council, 040 ; mem- 
ber of House of Assembly, G4G; a 
leader in the overthrow of the Pro- 
prietary jjovernuient, 647, 648. 

Skipwith, Sir Fulwar, represents 
minor Earl of Craven, 635. 

Skrine, Jonathan, member of Council, 
64'2. 

Slavery, Institution of. See Negro 
Slaves. 

Slaves, Indian. See Indians. 

Small pox, nicutioned, 308, 313. 

Smith, Henry, A. M., author, quoted, 
6!t3. 

Smith, Henry, of Caversham, trustee 
to receive surrender to the Crown, 
679. 

Smith, James, owner of lot in Old 
Town, 164. 

Smith, Michael, mentioned, 144 ; owner 
of lot in Old Town, 164. 

Smith, Paul, mentioned, 121, 125, 132, 
318. 

Smith, Thomas, one of the first colony, 
121, 134 ; owner of lot in Old Town, 
164. 

Smith, Thomas, Landgrave, 121 ?i.; 
on committee to consider Funda- 
mental Constitutions, 225 ; appointed 
Governor, 231 ; one of the Goose 
Creek men, 238 n. ; mentioned, 246; 
supposed author of jury law, 2.50 ; 
made Governor and Landgrave, 266; 
resigns government, 267 ; appeals to 
Proprietors to send out one of their 
number, 276; mentioned, 285, 288, 
292. 348, 349, 403, 696. 

Smyter, Captain, of the Minerva, capt- 
ured by pirates, 61(). 

Snow Hill or Nahucke, Indian fort 
in North Carolina, 525. 

Social Condition of Colony, 708, 709. 

Sothell, Seth, mentioned, 226 n. ; ar- 
rives, claims government as a Pro- 
prietor, 229; bears certificate of bis 
right to office, 230 ; Proprietors learn 
of his arrival, 231; deny his right to 
government, 232 ; but make no issue, 



233; his character, 233; mentioned, 
235, 237, 243, 246, 263, 265, 266, 273, 
275, 276, 277, 285, 291, 364, 387, 459, 
497, 674, 675, 689, 691. 

Souhise, Due de Fontenay, proposed 
French colony of, 49. 

South Sea Bubble, proposed company 
for purchase of Carolina in, 6(i6, 667, 
668, 669, 670, 671. 

Spain, recognition by, of England's 
possession in America, 129; but no 
settlement of boundary, 130; men- 
tioned, 218; King of, connives at 
raid from St. Augustine, and de- 
struction of Carolina colony, 220 ; 
mentioned, 255, 256, 394, 453; agent 
offered reward for obtaining free 
exportation of rice to, 517 ; men- 
tioned, 645. 

Spaniards, mentioned, 3, 4, 9, 38, 40, 
80, 87, 113, 122, 126, 127, 138, 146, 169, 
187, 205, 210, 211, 214, 216, 217, 219, 
248, 446, 452, 486, 531, 547, 564, 683, 
684. 

Spotswood, Governor of Virginia, 
502, r»4.'"), .549, 592, iVll. 

Stanhope, General, mentioned, 538, 540. 

Staner, Peter, member of Commons, 
505 ?^ 

Stanway, James, appointed by Pro- 
prietors, naval officer, 677. 

Stanyarne, James, member of Assem- 
bly, 2.39 //. 

Stanyarne, John, member of Assem- 
bly, ojiposes Church Act, 409. 

Stanyon, Captain, mentioned, 81. 

Starkey. Plantation of, 345. 

Stobo, Rev. Archibald, providential 
stranding upon shores, 311, 335. 

Stone, Captain, intercepts Indians, 546. 

Stono River, mentioned, 179, 236, 416. 

Stool, Captain, of scout boat sent out 
by Governor Johnson, 396. 

Strode, John, of Barbadoes, fits out 
vessel for Cai'olina, 143; comes 
from Barbadoes, 327 n. 

Stuart Town, of Cardross's colony, 494. 

Success, The Man-of-war, brings as- 
sistance from Virginia. 545. 

Sugar Islands, mentioned, 184, 211. 

Sullivans Island, name of, 121 ; 
O'SuUivan deserts charge of cannon 



INDEX 



759 



/ 



on, 169; scene of Poe's romance, 
Gold Bug, 202; watch upon, 396, 
397; mentioned, 398; Bonnet recapt- 
ured on, 612, (ilo. 

Summers, Thomas, member of Com- 
mons, signs address to King, 571. 

Sumter, General Thomas, mentioned, 
22. 

Sunderland, Earl of, mentioned, 436. 

Surrender of Charter, 678, (579. 

Surveyor General, Office of, 141, 160, 
170. 

Swift, Dean, mentioned, 471. 

Swiss, colony of, 323 ; massacre of, in 
North Carolina, 497 ; 

Symons, Henry, member of Parlia- 
ment, 134. 

Tabular Statement, condition of 
Provinces, by Berresford, 554. 

Tallow, exported to West Indies, 350. 

Tar, export of, 303, 304, 553, 622. 

Taxes, 482. 

Temporary Laws, 140, 145, 167, 168, 
169, 189. 

Test Acts of England, mentioned, 402, 
404, 405, 407. 

Texas, mentioned, 27. 

Thatch, Edward, alias Black Beard, 
the pirate, 589, 591, 592, 593, 594, 595, 
611, 621. 

Thomas, Captain George, owner of 
lot in Old Town, 1(54 «. 

Thomas, Rev. Samuel, 340, 411, 439, 
452. 

Thompson, Thomas, owner of lot in 
Old Town, 164; comes from Barba- 
does, 327 n. 

Thornburgh, William, representing 
Proprietary shares, 271, 276, 277, 
291, 388. 

Tigers, reward offered for destruction 
of, .".r)2. 

Timothy, Peter, mentioned, 2. 

Tindall, Hon. J. E., Commissioner of 
Public Records, .32. 

Titles of Proprietors, devolution of. 
See Appendix II, 714, 715. 

Tobacco, found to grow well, 187. 

Tories in England, mentioned, 405, 
407, 426, 429, 4.34, 437, 4.")2. 

Townsend, Thomas, member of Com- 
mons, signs address to the King, 571. 



Townsend, Lord, mentioned, 538, 540. 
Trade and Plantations, Board of, 

constitution and business of, 180; 
mentioned, 204; Earl Craven's com- 
munications to, in regard to pirates, 
20(), 219; undertake the enforcement 
of Navigation acts, 297; Randolph 
rouses to a stricter enforcement of, 
301; Randolph's report to, 302; 
urges royal authorities to resume 
government of the colonies, 388; 
security required of Governor at 
instance of, 38!) ; mentioned, 437; 
gives new vent to the discontents of 
the colonists, 456 ; pass the enforce- 
ment of navigation laws, 516; Gov- 
ernor Craven's appeal for assistance 
referred to, 538 ; Proprietors address 
the Board, 538, .539; Mr. Kettleby, 
agent of colony, and Mr. Robert 
Johnson appear before Board, 540, 
541, 542; General Spotswood of Vir- 
ginia complains to Board that Caro- 
lina had not fulfilled her obligations, 
549; Mr. Berresford presents me- 
morial to, 551, 552, 553, 554; Messrs. 
Boone and Berresford attend and 
present memorial of Commons, 571 ; 
Lord Carteret appears before same, 
572; Governor sends letter to, 622; 
determines to get rid of charter, 633 ; 
Boone again presents address of 
Commons, 634, 635 ; mentioned, 681, 
711. 

Treasurer, office of, 141. 

Trescott, Hon. William Henry, 
quoted, 2(5. 

Tresvant, Huguenot family of, 323 n. 

Trott, Ann, 460. 

Trott, Nicholas, Chief Justice, de- 
fines tlie law of piracy, 254 ; is made 
the first Attorney General, 297 ; men- 
tioned, 309, 328 71., 353 n.; sketch 
of, .368 ; enters Assembly as repre- 
sentative of " countrj'^ party," con- 
tention with Governor Blake, 370, 
371, 372; gives other offence, is sus- 
pended, 372, 373; is restored, 374; 
thwarts Governor Moore, 374, .375; 
reports on constitutions, 375, ."17(5, 
.■'.77; is made Chief Justice, 390; 
sitrns Cliurch Act as member of 



T60 



INDEX 



Council, 406; charge upon subject 
of witchcraft, 449, 450; sentences 
woman to be burned, 451 ; his posi- 
tion as deputy questioned, 455, 456; 
charges against as judge, 457, 458, 
Boone charges with corruption, 
463; commissioner of free scliool, 
488 ; his great work in revising and 
codifying hxws of the Province, 508 ; 
in England obtains extraordinary 
powers from Proprietors, 528, 529 ; 
election law objectionable to, 563 ; 
Proprietors revoke veto power, 564 ; 
mentioned, 565 ; Judge of Admiralty 
organize court for trial of pirates, 
566 ; member of Council, 568; in pri- 
vate communication with Proprie- 
tors, 569, 572 ; presides at trial of 
pirates, 609; his conduct on Bon- 
net's trial, 617; his charge to Bon- 
net, 618; mentioned, carrying on 
correspondence with secretary of 
Proprietors, 629, 630 ; charged again 
with corruption and tyranny, 630, 
631 ; supports Proprietors, ()32 ; Gov- 
ernor and Council send Yonge to lay 
charges against, before Proprietors, 
633; mentioned, 636, 637; Yonge 
presents comijlaint against, 639 : 
Proprietors resent action of Gover- 
nor and Council thereon, 640, ()41 ; 
name him on new Council, 642, 643; 
mentioned, 645 ; threatens Commons 
with his judicial powers, (546; men- 
tioned, 648; goes to England, 665; 
mentioned, 673, 690, 691, 692; death 
of, 694 : mentioned, 701, 

Trott, Nicholas, of London, men- 
tionctl, 273 ; Amy settles proprietary 
share upon, 387 ; mentioned, 428, 
429, 673, 674, 675, 67(). See JJanson 
V. Trott. 

Trouillard, Rev. Florente Phillipe, 
336. 

Tucker, Robert, pirate, trial and con- 
viction, 610, 611. 

Tugaloo plantation raided by Indians, 
546. 

Turbeville, Fortesque, deputy of 
Duke of Beaufort, corrupt conduct 
in election of Governor, and death 
of, 489. 



Turpentine, manufacture and export 

of, 553, 622. 

Turpin, Thomas, owner of lot in Old 
Town, l(i4. 

Turtle Dove, The Ship, taken by 
pirates, 575. 

Tuscarora Indians, rise of, in North 
Carolina, 496, 497, 498; expeditions 
against, 499, 500, 501, 525, 526; men- 
tioned, 549,684. 

Tynte, Edward, appointed Governor, 
465; commissioned, 484; instruc- 
tions of, 485, 48(5; death of, 487. 

Upper and Lower House, questions 
in regard to, 371, 469, 

Valour, The Ship, brings assistance 
from, 545, 

Vane, Charles, the pirate, 588, 597, 
.598, 

Vasquez, Lucas de AUyon, discovery 
of Ciirolina by, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45. 

Vera Cruz mentioned, 206, 

Verrazzano, Giovanni, expedition, 43, 
45, 

Virginia Queen, The Ship, captured 
by pirates, 575, 

Virginia, mentioned, 2, 5, 9, 13, 54, 81, 
116, 229, 293, 2<Ki, 418, 479, 537, 545, 
549,550,551. 

Wadmalaw Island, Saudford lands 
upon, 83. 

Wallingford, Connecticut, mentioned, 
3. 

Walker, Sir Hovenden, mentioned, 
655, 663. 

Walter, name from Barbadoes, 328 n. 

Wando River, mentioned, 77, 139, 146, 
162, 331, 41(i, 

Wappetaw Church, founders of, 286, 

Waring, Benjamin, mentioned, 239 n. 

Waring, Thomas, member of Com- 
mons, signs address to King, 571 ??. 

Watkins, John, arrives in the Loyal 
J<()aaica, and gives security, 261: 
an assistant judge in the trial of 
pirates, 610. 

Watson. Hugh, purchases Proprietary 
shares as trustee, 676. 

Weems, Mason L., author, mentioned, 
21. 

West, Joseph, appointed Governor of 
fleet bound for Carolina, 115; men- 



INDEX 



761 



tioned, 120; Deputy for Duke of 
Albemarle, 124; mentioned, 135; 
appointed by Sayle his successor as 
Governor, 138; assumes govern- 
ment. Ibid.: mentioned, 139; his 
measures in time of distress, 147; 
Yeamans claims government from, 
155, 156; summons Parliament, in 
which two parties appear, 156, 157 ; 
superseded by Yeamans, 158; a 
deputy, 161; mentioned, 170; made 
a Landgrave, 172; Proprietors ar- 
raign Yeamans's conduct to. Ibid. ; 
recommissioned as Governor, 172, 
175; mentioned, 176, 182; endeavors 
to restrain licentiousness, 184; re- 
moved, 194; again commissioned, 
207; his instructions, 207, 208; re- 
tires, 208 ; mentioned, 210, 223 2'>4 
275, 288, 292, 346, 374, 506, 689. ' ' 

West, Samuel, elected Representative, 
125 ; joins in application for a min- 
ister, 132. 

Westoes Indians, mentioned, 125, 170 
171, 177. 

Weston, Plowden C. J., documents 
printed by, 28. 

Whale Branch, mentioned, 44. 

Whaley, name of, from Jamaica, 327 n. 

Wheat, lands yield abundance of 
187. 

Whigs of England, mentioned, 403, 
405, 438, 461. 

White Meeting. See Congregation- 
alists. 

White Point. See Oyster Point. 

White Servants, brought out in first 
colony, 121; one mentioned, 134; 
see Scotch exiles; mentioned, 284; 
in Barbadoes, mentioned, 355 ; stat- 
utory provisions in regard to, 358, 
359 ; numbers of, 477. 

Wild Cat, reward for destruction of. 



352. 

William III, proclaimed, 229; priva- 
teers under commission of, 2(J0, 2(52 ; 
mentioned, 2()8 ; oath of allegiance 
to, 289; mentioned, 365 ; Sir Nathan- 
iel Johnson's refusal to take oath to, 
368; ineiitioned, 403, 404. 

Williams, James, member of Assem- 
bly, 239 n. 



Williams, John, member of Commons, 

signs address to King, 571 n. 
William & Kalph, The Ship, " A bar- 
rel of rice," on bill of lading of, 349. 
Williamson, Rev. Atkins, arrival in 
province, 184; may have officiated 
in Old Town, 331, 332. 
Willoughby, Lord, mentioned, 212. 
Wilson, Samuel, account of Province 
184, 185, 190. ' 

Wina Indian, mentioned, 214. 
Windmill Point, mentioned, 395. 
Witchcraft. See Nicholas Trott. 
Wodrow, Historian, q^uoted, 196. 
Wommony, Indian Cacique, 88. 
Wood, Eev. Alexander, commissioner 

of free school, 488, 511. 
Wood, Henry, owner of lot in Old 

Town, 1()4. 
Wooden Houses, the building of, pro- 
hibited, 573. 

Woodward, name from Barbadoes. 

327;;. 

Woodward, Dr. Henry, accompanies 
Sandford, visits Indians, 83; left as 
hostage with, 90, 91 ; found at Nevis, 
122; wa-ites to Lord Ashley of dis- 
covery of delightful country, 137; 
explores Westoes and Cussatoes for 
Earl of Shaftesbury, 177; goes on 
expedition for Sir John Yeamans 
to Virginia, 346. 

Woodward, John, member of Com- 
mons, signs address to the Kinc;, 
571 n. 

Woodward, Joseph, his connection 
with tlie introduction of rice, 348 
349. 

Worley, Richard, the pirate, 616, 621. 

Wragg, Samuel, member of Com- 
mons, 505 n. ; member of Council, 
568 ; captured by pirates, 589 ; ne- 
gotiations for release of, 591, 592; 
member of Council, 642. 

Wragg, William, son of above, capt- 
ured witli his father, 590. 

Wright, Robert, appointed Chief Jus- 
tice by Proprietors, 677. 

Wright, John, murdered by Indians, 
534. 

Yamassee Indians, mentioned, 411; 
party of, in BarnweH's expedition 



762 



INDEX 



to North Carolina, 499; rise and 
attack the colonists, 533, 534, 535, 
546 ; upon defeat retire to Spanish 
territory, 547 ; lands of, allotted to 
new settlers, 555, 557. 

Yamassee Lands, disposition of, 628, 
(529, 63'. t, 703. 

Yeamans, Sir John, mentioned, 8; 
sketch of, 69 ; commissioned Gover- 
nor of the county of Clarendon, 75, 
76; forms " of adventures for Caro- 
lina," 79; and sails for Cape Fear, 
80 ; returns to Barbadoes, 81 ; state- 
ments in regard to his beneficent 
rule at Cape Fear corrected, 92, 93; 
sails with colonists from Barbadoes, 
122 ; abandons them at Bermuda, 
123; his conduct causes discontent, 
124; mentioned, 131; Halsted in- 
structed to consult at Barbadoes, 
139 ; made Landgrave, 141 ; issues 
proclamation at Barbadoes offering 
transportation and inducements to 
parties removing to Carolina, 143; 
suit against, in Carolina, 150 ; now 
in province, had brought with him 
his slaves from Barbadoes, 151 ; 
time of his arrival uncertain, 154, 
155; chosen Speaker, but claims 
right to be Governor because a Land- 
grave, 155 ; returns dissatisfied, 155, 
156; again asserts his right to be 
Governor, 157; Coiincil refuse to 
recognize his claim, 158 ; but already 
commissioned by Proprietors, 158, 
160 ; instructions, 161 ; proceeds to 
lay out another town, 162, 163; 
enters upon extensive plans, 164; 
charged with exporting provisions 
at great gain to Barbadoes, 165 ; 
letter to, from Earl of Shaftesbury 
of remonstrance, 165 ; about to be 
removed, 171 ; Proprietors arraign 



his conduct to West, whom they 
commission as Governor, 172 ; re- 
tires to Barbadoes, where he dies, 
173 ; other charges against. Ibid. ; 
mentioned, 191, 208, 224, 316, 317; 
mentioned as coming from Barba- 
does, 327 n. ; plantation of, 345; 
sends Dr. Henry Woodward to Vir- 
ginia, 346. 
Yeamans, Major William, negotia- 
tion with Proprietors for proposed 
colony, 75. 
Yeamans or Yeamans Hall, traditions 

in regard, 70.'). 
Yeamans Harbor, Sandford so named 

Broad River, 87, 88. 
Year Books, City of Charleston, 31. 
Yeates, The Pirate, escapes with Vane 
and Captain Rogers, 588 ; deserts 
Vane, 597 ; puts into North Edesto 
and surrenders, 598. 
Yellow Fever, first appearance in 
Carolina, great mortality by, 308, 
309, 310, 313 ; second appearance, 
396. 
Yester, one of the names of Lord Car- 
dross's Company, 195. 
Yonge, Francis, member of Council, 
567, 568 ; assistant judge in trial of 
pirates, 575 ; sent by Governor and 
Council to explain their conduct and 
to lay before Proprietors charges 
against Trott, and to confer upon 
sundry matters, 633 ; arrives in Lon- 
don, 635 ; finds difficulty in obtaining 
a hearing, 636 ; presents memorial, 
636, 637 ; is rebuffed by Proprietors 
and sent back with sealed package, 
640 ; member of new Council, 642 ; 
quotation from, 643 ; mentioned, 
647. 
York, Duke of, member of the Royal 
African Company, 357, 358. 



THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF VIRGINIA IN THE 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



BY 

PHILIP ALEXANDER BRUCE, 

Author of "The Plantation Negro as a Freeman," and Corresponding 
Secretary of the Virginia Historical Society. 

Two Vols. Crown 8vo. Cloth Extra. Price $6.00. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chap. I. Reasons for the Colonization of 
Virginia. 

II. Aboriginal Virginia — Its Physical 
Character. 

III. Aboriginal Virginia — Indian 
Economy. 

IV. V, VI, VII. Agricultural Develop- 
ment, 1 607-1 700. 

VIII. Acquisition of Original Title to 
Land — The Patent. 

IX, X. System of Labor — Agricultu- 
ral Servant. 

XI. System of Labor — The Slave. 



Chap. XII, XIII. Domestic Economy of the 
Planter. 

" XIV. Relative Value of Estates. 

" XV, XVI. Manufactured Supplies — 
Foreign. 

" XVII, XVIli. Manufactured Supplies 
— Domestic. 

" XIX. Monetary System. 

" XX. The Town. 

" XXI. General Remarks on the Eco- 
nomic Character of Virginia in 
the 17th Century. 



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SOURCES OF THE CONSTITUTION 



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